


Falling in the Water

by panaili



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Attempted Murder, Dark, Discussion of Rape, F/M, Gen, Horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Season 2, Sexual Violence, Supernatural Elements, Violence, Wraith, non-graphic references to sexual assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 06:50:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 41,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7424320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panaili/pseuds/panaili
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aang makes a mistake. Toph pays the price. [set in Season 2, post-"Bitter Work". Edited and reposted from FF.net]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PART ONE

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place during Avatar season 2, sometime after the episode "Bitter Work". Also, I pretty much just assume that the Earth Kingdom equates to China, so all of my original characters will have Chinese names. This story will be Gaang-centric (minus Zuko, sorry) and it will also include a few minor OCs. Minor Kataang hints (no more than are already in the series), and uh. Tokka if you squint. Kinda. I can't really see them together at any time in actual canon, to tell the truth, but that doesn't mean I can't allude to it. :) This story can pretty much be assumed to be AU, though it's kinda more like a really dark what-if episode than an actual change to the storyline.
> 
> FOREWARNING: the rape/non-con tag refers to something that happened in the past to another character. That being said, it is very relevant to the plot and while it is not graphically described, it is very much a large issue and it does affect one of the main characters. Please use caution. 
> 
> Also, this story was originally posted on FF.net back in 2009 (under the name Kyra Rivers), so you feel like you've read this before, that's why. (I promise, we're the same person. ;P ) The plot is the same, but I went through the whole story and edited it so it reads smoother and isn't quite so wordy. Despite the edits, it is still technically a repost of an old fanfic, so I've chosen to post it in one go rather than chapter-by-chapter. I hope you all like it!

* * *

 

** FALLING IN THE WATER **

 

一失足成千古恨

_Yishi zu cheng qian gu hen_

 

One wrong step can cause a thousand regrets. 

(Falling in the water just once can kill you.)

 

* * *

 

 

** PART ONE **

 

A glitter in the corner of his eye distracted Aang from the array of vegetables in front of him, and he turned to look at a stand near the entrance of the market. It was smaller than some of the other booths in the area, but a large number of people were crowded around it. On display were long golden chains with crystals of varying sizes, sparkling different colors in the morning sunlight.

As he watched, Aang heard the old woman behind the display saying, "And they are proven to dispel the spirits, even one so strong as Her, and your daughters will no longer have to be afraid." 

This proclamation was met with a round of approval from the audience, many of whom were digging through their purses for money as the woman continued.

"Hey, Katara," Aang said, tugging on her blue tunic. 

She wasn’t paying attention, too focused on sorting out vegetables to resupply them long enough to make it to the next town. Toph and Sokka had opted out of shopping that day, choosing instead to stay back at the campsite and train. Aang wasn't exactly sure how either of them could train the other, but any kind of training with Toph would at the very least help with speed. 

Either way, it left Aang and Katara to finish the shopping themselves.

Katara didn't respond to Aang nudging her, intent as she was on the carrots, so Aang tugged again and said louder, "Katara, look, they're talking about some kind of spirit."

"What?" asked Katara, looking up. She glanced over at the old woman and her jeweled necklaces just in time to hear the crowd cheer in approval once again.

"I wonder what they're talking about," Aang suggested casually. Generally speaking, any mention of spirits was good enough for him to be interested, and he knew Katara was at least a little superstitious. She was definitely easier to convince that Toph or Sokka would be. 

"Let's go look," Katara said, leading the way. Being rather small, they were able to squeeze their way past most of the crowd, ducking under the thick arms of a pair of farmers to stand at the front of the crowd, not three feet away from the old woman and her charms.

The woman was tall and old, with a thick waist of one who has worked hard and done well by it in life. Her eyes were green and piercing as she immediately took in the two new arrivals to the crowd. 

"You two!" the old woman called out almost instantly, looking first at Aang and then at Katara, eyes narrowing at the latter. "Are you visitors? I know everyone in this market, and I've never seen your faces before."

"Aha," Aang began, flushing a bit at being put so abruptly on the spot. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, looking anywhere but at the old woman and her sharp stare. "Yeah, we're just buying some supplies."

Katara came to his rescue. "We saw your necklaces and heard you say something about spirits. What's going on?"

"It's the Wild Woman!" someone in the crowd called out. Another person added in, "We need protection!" and suddenly there was a mess of people chattering, some pleading at the old woman with small bags of money while still others clung to their children nervously and murmured to each other.

"The... Wild Woman?" Katara repeated, looking at the old woman with a confused expression. "What does that mean?"

The old woman nodded sagely, sharp eyes softening in the wake of the villagers' fear. "I am Lao Meiying," she said, "wife of Lao Zhong, and mother of Xiaomei. I have kept the story of the Wild Woman alive in this village as a warning to those who travel through the northern woods, especially the merchants and traders who visit and live here."

Katara and Aang exchanged a nervous glance. Their campsite was just shy of the woods north of the town.

"What's the story?" Katara asked politely, after introducing Aang and herself. Around them, the villagers were also listening, though Aang got the impression they had all heard the tale before by the way they were nodding and whispering as they waited.

"The Wild Woman," Lao Meiying said with a low, charged voice, "is a danger to the young maidens of our town. She is said to have lived long ago when there were bands of warring tribes all around this area. Long ago, this village was home to a great merchant, a crafty and intelligent man who braved the dangers of the woods and warring tribes to bring prosperity to his home. He had a large family, including a beautiful daughter whose virtues were talked about for miles around. She was engaged to a young man from another village who was equally as talented as her father, and who was poised to be the next leader of the village.

"Unfortunately, the man and his son-in-law were not quite as skilled as people thought. They were shady dealers, making enemies of the many warring gangs as they stole money from them. The man's daughter knew nothing of her father and fiancée's actions, and took pleasure in what she thought were well-earned goods.

"But their unscrupulous dealings grew too many. Finally, the enemies of the girl's father and fiancée joined together to get revenge on the thieving pair. They attacked the village with torches, burning everything in sight and attacking anyone who dared oppose them. The man and his daughter's fiancée were away at the time, traveling on yet another trip, and so when their enemies stormed the house to find them, they were unsatisfied. Instead, they killed the man's family, even the children, and stole away his beautiful daughter."

Aang gasped at this revelation, locking eyes with Katara, who looked equally disturbed by the story's turn. The old woman was looking at them both with intense eyes, and all around them the villagers had gone silent, all hanging on Lao Meiying's dark words.

"The man and his son-in-law returned," Lao Meiying continued, "but it was too late. The villagers told him what happened to the poor girl, and so they ran out to the woods to try and save her. But nothing could be done." The old woman's eyes grew cold and stony, as though remembering something painful. "The girl had been beaten and left to die in the unforgiving woods, bared and shamed for her family's crimes."

"That's horrible," Katara whispered, her face pale. Aang shifted closer to Katara, uncomfortable, and felt a bit better when she leaned back against his arm.

"It is said," Lao Meiying said quietly, "that the daughter's rage against her father and fiancée was terrible. She hated that they would endanger their own family without any thought or regard; that they would make so many enemies, and that they would be gone when their debt was called upon to be paid. It is said," she repeated, "that the daughter's spirit was so angry that she grew into a wraith called the Wild Woman, who preys on the men who travel through her forest. If a man angers the Wild Woman, she'll make him pay in the only way she knows how: by stealing away his daughter or sister, wife or lover, and killing them herself."

"But only the maidens," called a voice from behind Aang and Katara, an older man with a thick black beard.

"Only the maidens," Lao Meiying agreed, her lips pursing unpleasantly. She suddenly looked very lost to Aang, strikingly different from the strength she had displayed earlier. "The Wild Woman was taken still in her girlhood, and so she only takes those young ladies who are not yet grown."

She paused for a moment as the crowd began to whisper again around them, and added quietly, "My daughter was one of the girls taken. We never found her."

"That's awful. I'm so sorry for you," Katara said, reaching a hand out to touch the old woman's arm. Tears glinted in Katara's eyes, clearly sympathetic to her suffering.

"It was awful," Lao Meiying agreed, "but it was nearly 25 years ago. My husband made the mistake of angering the Wild Woman on one of his travels, and she took her revenge." She stopped and seemed, for a moment, to be dwelling on the past, but soon her eyes sharpened and she pointed to Katara. "That's why I noticed you, my dear! You resemble my poor Xiaomei so strongly. She couldn't have been much older than you when she vanished."

"B-but we haven't angered the Wild Woman!" Aang protested, though he grabbed onto Katara's arm nervously anyway. A soft hand was placed over his briefly, acknowledging the concern, before Katara gently pulled away.

"See to it that you don't, young man," commanded the old woman sternly. "You're not too young to be subject to her judgment. Especially recently."

"Recently?" Aang repeated.

"Yeah," the same man from earlier said. Most of the crowd had dispersed after the telling of the story, recognizing that it would be a bit before sales would resume. Some still remained, all looking rather tense, including the older farmer, his frail-looking wife, and a group of young men just out of their teens. The farmer continued, "The Wild Woman's been unusually active for the past few months, and no one knows why."

"Many people suspect the Wild Woman died during the year of the Snake, same as this year," Lao Meiying offered, "She's a danger at all times, but every twelve years during the year of the Snake, it feels as though she seeks out victims, rather than waiting for them to come to her."

"Whatever the reason," the farmer said, "we've had three girls disappear in the past four months. And if the pattern keeps up, we're due for a fourth. Trade has died down because no one dares go through the forest to exchange goods, and everyone's suffering from it. We've managed to trade a little by sending some women through the forest instead, but we just don't have enough female traders to help keep the business up."

"That's why I'm selling these charms," Lao Meiying said, holding out one of the necklaces: a pretty blue stone dangled from the end of a golden chain. "After my daughter vanished, I learned some ways to repel spirits. If a maiden wears this charm, she'll be safe from the Wild Woman's touch."

"They work, too," one of the young men exclaimed. "Zhou Likai's little sister Aili was protected, remember? After her father saw the Wild Woman last autumn."

Lao Meiying nodded sagely, looking intently at Aang and Katara. "They are expensive, for the materials I need are rare, but if you have the money to spare, I advise you take a charm for your own protection."

Katara and Aang exchanged a glance, with Aang looking worried and Katara looking apprehensive. Aang felt his heart drop a little when Katara gave him a subtle head shake, touching her small change purse as if to remind him of their limited funds. Katara turned to the old woman and said politely, "I'm afraid we can’t afford it."

Then, struck by inspiration, Aang exclaimed, "But maybe I can help!"

Lao Meiying and the other villagers looked confused. From Katara's apprehensive expression, she guessed where was going with this. Placing a hand on Aang's shoulder, she said, "Aang, I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Well, why not?" Aang asked. "There are girls dying from this evil spirit, and I am the link between our worlds. Maybe I can banish the Wild Woman."

"What do you mean?" Lao Meiying asked, eyes narrowing. After a moment of scrutiny, she suddenly gasped and said, "Oh!" in a faint voice.

"What?" the farmer asked. "What is it?"

"I should have recognized your tattoos," Lao Meiying said, looking chagrined. "I have seen pictures of Airbender insignia before, but it was a long time ago." Setting down the charm in her hand, the old woman proceeded to honor Aang with a low bow, showing her age as she held onto her back as she stood back up. "Our village is honored to meet you, Avatar."

"The Avatar!" the farmer exclaimed in surprise, following her lead and offering a bow first to Aang, then to Katara. His wife followed suit, though the young men simply nodded at them, looking mildly confused.

"As the Avatar," Aang said, "I might be able to talk with the Wild Woman and make peace."

"Aang," Katara murmured, looking torn. "I'm not sure-"

Lao Meiying interjected, "Oh, you won't have to worry." Snatching the charm from where it lay on the booth, the woman thrust it at Katara, saying, "I will offer you a free charm for your protection. If the Avatar is willing to help out our village, it's the least I can do to ensure that any maidens he's acquainted with will be protected."

"Oh, well - thank you, but—" Katara stammered, accepting the necklace with a hesitant smile, "—well, I think Aang has a great idea. We just need to discuss it with the rest of our party before we decide anything."

Aang got the message Katara was sending with her eyes: anything that would likely involve spirits and fighting needed to be a group decision, not an Avatar one. Especially, Aang thought nervously, with a violent spirit like this one. 

"I understand," Aang said to Katara solemnly. He bowed to Lao Meiying and said, "I promise that Katara and I will return tomorrow as soon as we've talked it over and let you know our decision. I hope that will be all right with you."

Lao Meiying's return smile seemed heavy with the hope of potential salvation, and she nodded tensely. "I hope you'll look upon us in favor," she replied formally, bowing again.

Aang smiled back, But, as he looked over at Katara, he couldn't help feeling a sliver of worry about their new task.

 

 

\--

 

 

They return to camp after finishing the shopping. The villagers had been strange mix of reverent and skeptical at the news that the Avatar might try to dispel the Wild Woman, and they received many offers of free food that Katara refused to accept. As it was, they had lighter pockets and heavier satchels as they approached their campsite. 

They arrived just in time to hear Toph shout, "Too slow, Snoozles!" and the unmistakable sound of splattering mud.

"Oh, now that's just not fair!" Sokka whined loudly from somewhere out of sight. He staggered into view moments later, and Katara and Aang both found themselves stopped short by choking laughter. The young warrior was covered from head to toe in mud, his club gripped loosely in one fist while the other hand clutched at his side. He appeared to be exhausted.

Not noticing Aang and Katara, Sokka shouted, "I took out five of your warriors! Five!"

"It only takes one to strike the finishing blow. Next time, take them all out," Toph called back, walking into view from the opposite direction. Following her was what looked like a mockery of a man made entirely of mud, holding a mud-club in its hand. In fact, if Katara looked close enough, she could see a lumpy mud-ponytail sticking out of the mud warrior's head, and that realization only made her giggle more.

Toph grinned in their general direction, saying, "Hey, guys. How was shopping?"

"It was okay," Aang said once he found the breath to speak, setting down the bag of food next to the tent.

"Well, that's great," Sokka griped irritably, flopping down with a loud grunt. "I'm glad you guys got to have a leisurely trip to town. I just spent the past four hours getting attacked by mud monsters! I feel like I'm going to die!"

"Any chance you could wash off before dying?" Katara asked, smirking at her older brother. There wasn’t a single part of him that wasn't coated in mud somehow. "You smell."

"Thanks sis'," came Sokka's expected reaction, a weak moan from the slumped over mud blob that was once her brother. "You're all heart."

"Oh, stop whining," Toph said. She had wandered over to Aang to grab one of his bags, and was currently sorting through some of the food supplies with him. She held each item of produce out and collected any dirt that still clung to it before Aang sorted them by type. 

Toph paused in her sorting and gestured over to Sokka. With a sharp swipe of her hand, she made all of the mud rush off him in a small earth wave.

The mud came together in a circle on the ground, and then it formed up into a three-foot tall imitation of Sokka. It was much more precise than the mud warrior from before, and as Katara watched, she saw Toph move the figure around like it was ranting and raving, waving around its tiny club and attacking the ground with a vengeance. 

Katara snickered and Aang laughed, but Sokka just made a face before declaring regally, "I am going to go bathe now."

He got four steps before pausing. He glared back at them and shouted, "TOPH! Make that thing stop following me!"

The Mud Sokka made a pouting face and sat cross-legged on its mound of dirt as Sokka stalked off grumbling. Toph smirked as Aang and Katara laughed anew.

"Speaking of mud," Toph said as she dusted off the last potato and waited for Aang to stop laughing, "You and I need to train, Twinkletoes. You've been off shopping all day."

"Okay, sure," Aang agreed amiably, sitting back up and collecting the vegetables all together. He brought them over to Katara, who had begun to set out some fresh dry branches to start the fire. He added, "Actually, Katara and I have something to talk to you and Sokka about, too. It's about this spirit nearby-"

"Save it for dinner," Toph cut him off, waving a hand carelessly. "Sokka's the one who'll want to hear about it anyway, and it'll be faster to tell both of us together."

"That's probably a good point," Katara agreed. She grabbed a couple carrots and a knife, waving a shooing gesture at Aang. "You go off and train. I'm okay with making dinner tonight, and it's going to be awhile."

"Good," Toph said before Aang could respond. Katara could see a lingering smirk on her face, and suddenly felt very sympathetic toward Aang. "Today's lesson is gonna be fun."

From the look on Aang's face, he had noticed the smirk too.

 

 

\--

 

 

"I got this idea when I was helping Sokka train," Toph said as they headed out to the nearest valley she could find. It was a bit more difficult to do some of the more intense earth-bending in a forest, as there were fewer rocks and a lot more plant life to contend with, but Toph couldn't control where they would be on any given day, so she had to make do with what she could. 

On the plus side, it made her come up with some creative lessons, which at the least helped keep Aang interested.

"Today, I want to focus on finding the weak points in rock," Toph explained further. Aang was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, his feet just barely touching the ground, but Toph could feel his leg twitching in anticipation. "You're going to use hand-to-hand combat to battle one of my mud warriors – no bending, I mean it! You have to sense the imperfection that I put in there. Once you know where it is, strike it and you'll defeat them. Otherwise, you're gonna get crushed."

"Okay," Aang said, jumping off the trunk. She could feel him nodding by the way his feet rocked a little on the heels. "Find the flaw and strike. Shouldn't be too difficult."

"Not at first," Toph said. "I'll give you a trial run so you can figure out how to sense the weak point, but after that you'll have a time limit. Take too long and you're going to be even muddier than Sokka."

"Gotcha," Aang replied agreeably, watching as Toph summoned a new mud warrior from the ground. This one was shorter than before and looked like a faceless Aang, with long, thin limbs and no hair. Aang rocked back into an attack position, waiting for an attack.

He was still waiting a minute later, when nothing had yet happened.

"Um, are we starting?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Um, are you forgetting something?" Toph mocked, standing just to the side of the meadow, leaning against a tree. She heard him sigh loudly after a moment's thought, digging in his pockets, and she grinned. "Blindfold or no go, Twinkletoes. Seeing is for lame Air-benders, not awesome Earth-benders."

Toph couldn't see, but she knew that Aang was making a face at her.

Blindfold on and ready, Aang settled into position again. Without warning, Toph launched her warrior at him, swiftly swinging a punch at Aang's abdomen. Aang leapt backwards, instinctively leaving the ground out of surprise.

"No bending!" Toph snapped instantly.

"Sorry!" Aang replied, startled. By the way he landed, she could tell he had fallen back into a flip before landing, and was mildly impressed. Airbenders - or at the least Aang, who was the only airbender Toph knew - seemed to have a natural sort of agility. When she wasn't trying to fight against it, Aang’s ability to twist and turn in effective evasive maneuvers was pretty fun to observe.

The instant Aang settled back to the ground, Toph attacked again, sending her warrior out to strike him on the side of the head. This time Aang ducked and struck back, a glancing blow on its flank. The warrior simply spun around in a roundhouse kick, catching Aang in the gut and sending him flying into a nearby tree. Toph had to hand it to Aang: he was up in seconds with nothing more than a grumbled moan to show how much the attack had to have hurt, and was launching himself back at his opponent with impressive speed.

This time he aimed for the mud warrior's knee, to no avail. The two fighters sparred for a while before Toph realized that Aang wasn't doing much more than playing a guessing game. He kept striking at different parts of the warrior, trying to discover the weak point by elimination rather than by feeling the earth.

"Hey!" Toph snapped. Aang had the presence of mind not to be distracted by her yelling, because she didn't stop attacking. "You need to feel the imperfection, not find it by luck!"

Aang grunted in response, too busy fighting to give a proper response, and she let them continue in relative silence for a while. Then she felt Aang strike the ground twice sharply with his foot, a move that had become their signal to call a halt to training in case Aang was otherwise too occupied to voice it. She ceased her warrior's movements and asked, "What?"

"I can't feel it," Aang replied. "I keep trying to feel the earth for a problem, but it's moving too fast for me to get a handle on it."

Toph considered Aang's point for a moment before walking over. She brought her warrior up to stand up straight as she said, "You can take off your blindfold for this if you want."

Aang did so, and Toph continued, "Now, the thing about finding flaws is that it's not just an earth-bending move. If you're fighting a real person, the same kind of observation is needed. That's one way that earth-bending can really help, even in a situation where you're not necessarily using it. You can tell from the earth if someone is putting too much weight on one foot or leaning too far into a punch. If you get really good at seeing with your feet, you can even tell how fast a person's heart is beating and let that tell you how tired your opponent is, that sort of thing."

"But that doesn't work with fighting mud," Aang replied.

"No, but the same concept applies, just in a different way," Toph explained. "If there was more rock around I would have used that, actually, because this technique is primarily based around imperfection in rock. To be honest, finding these flaws in real life will probably be a lot easier than in my training, because unless another Earth-bender attacks you using rock warriors like I am, the rock should be stationary. Still, fighting like this will help you find the flaw quickly.

"The key to this training," Toph continued, "is being able to locate the part of the warrior here," she patted its constructed shoulder, "that feels weaker. It's hard when it's moving, so just try to find it right now."

She felt Aang go still, concentrating.

After a few moments, she clarified, "It's not like a scan. It's something that you should be observing instinctually when you first feel it with your feet. It's like seeing someone lean heavily on one foot, but its part of the earth. Just sense where the earth feels less compact, like there's some kind of fissure. Rock will be the same. Trust me, most stones will have more flaws that what I've created here. It's natural for there to be multiple weak points spaced out throughout. You need to find the weakest spot."

Aang hummed in acknowledgement, still focusing his attention on the motionless mud warrior in front of him. A few more seconds passed, and then Aang reached out and brought his hand down in a sharp swipe against the warrior's collarbone. The entire construct dissolved in a mess of dirt clumps.

"Good," Toph confirmed, nodding once. "Now, do that again when you're fighting. Blindfold back on." Without further pause, she re-formed the warrior with a new flaw in place and sent it swinging at Aang.

Aang swung back after rapidly tying his blindfold, but this time he didn't keep striking at random points. Instead, he parried every blow the mud warrior threw at him and waited, trying to feel out the new weak point in the dirt. Toph could feel his feet dancing around on the ground, light as always, and crossed her arms as she kept up the attack. It was taking him too long.

"You have one minute left, Twinkletoes!" she called out, and could tell by Aang's racing heartbeat that he was starting to panic about not being able to tell where the weak point was. He even started to strike randomly again, but it was too late; after a minute had passed, Toph made the creature explode in a shower of mud, coating Aang generously.

"Blah," Aang said after the explosion of mud, sounding disgusted. "I think I swallowed a worm."

"Too bad," Toph said. "What's your problem now? Did I not baby-step you enough on this process, or what?"

"It was just going too fast," Aang admitted sheepishly, and Toph was pleased to see that he didn't seem any worse for wear in response to her berating him. Katara still worried about Aang's feelings and made sure Toph knew that, but Toph was pretty sure she and Aang had a decent understanding about how she preferred to teach.

"Well, this time you'd better get it," Toph snapped, "or I'll make sure you really do swallow a worm." She summoned up another mud warrior and sent it rushing at Aang.

This time didn't prove to be much better, but as Aang continued to fight and grow rapidly frustrated, Toph began to realize what the problem might be.

"Aang!" she called out. "You need to think outside the box!" Aang hesitated briefly in his attack, which forced him to duck and do a quick swing kick to get the upper hand. Toph continued, "You're thinking of your opponent like it's a human, but it's not!"

Aang dodged and rolled to the left, and as he came up he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Just because it looks like a person doesn't mean the weak point is going to the same as a human's," Toph explained. "You're not going to find the weak point if you don't look at the whole picture!"

Aang seemed to consider her words, allowing himself to rest a little more heavily on his feet. He fought hand-to-hand with the mud warrior, no longer trying as actively to evade the attacks. Toph could feel the moment he got it by the way he suddenly rolled forward on the balls of his feet and dug his toes into the earth, leaning forward to strike. With a swift slice, he shattered the mud warrior's right elbow.

His opponent collapsed in front of him lifelessly, and Aang bent down toward it in a mocking little bow. Toph resisted the urge to snort, and kept her face impassive as Aang turned to regard her.

She kept silent for a few moments, letting Aang reflect on the lesson. "Good," she said simply, not moving from her spot against the tree. Then she allowed herself to smirk. "Now let's do it ten more times."

"What?" Aang asked, startled, but anything else he wanted to say was cut off by his yelp of surprise as a newly formed mud warrior struck him from behind.

 

 

\--

 

 

Dinner was already finished by the time the subject of the spirit came up. Toph was skeptical, but she agreed that Aang was probably the only person around who could potentially do something about the spirit long-term. 

Sokka, however, was a little more defensive-minded about the whole matter.

"Look, I feel bad for them," Sokka said, looking apprehensively at Katara and Aang, who seemed outraged by his dissent. "But I'm just thinking about our safety too. This isn't just a little bit of spiritual unrest. The Wild Woman is a wraith. I've heard stories about those, and they're bad. Really bad."

"No one else can help them," Aang argued again. "I'm the Avatar. What's the point of me being the bridge between our worlds if I can't banish bad spirits?"

"He has a point," Toph agreed casually, lying on her back alongside the fire. She was chewing on a stalk of grass thoughtfully as everyone debated around her, choosing not to involve herself unnecessarily. "But Sokka makes a good point too. Why should we risk our lives for this town? The situation sucks, yeah, but they've dealt with it for a long time, and we already have an impossible quest that we need to complete."

"Exactly," Sokka said, pointing down at Toph. "Just what she said. I mean, it's bad enough that we still have those three Fire nation girls chasing us - and just because we haven't seen them in awhile doesn't mean they're not still out there - but have you thought about actually fighting the Wild Woman? What if she kills you? This isn't a great time for the world to be without the Avatar again."

"Well, that's not really a problem," Katara admitted. "She doesn't kill men."

"So she could kill you, Katara! Or Toph! That isn't exactly a comfort!"

"She's not going to," Aang said, though he felt yet another pang of worry as he glanced in Katara's direction. He shook it away, not wanting to think of any of his friends being in danger, insisting, "If I can't talk to her, I should be able to send her back to the spirit world."

"How do you know that?" Sokka asked. "Have you ever banished a spirit before? Have you ever even met a wraith?"

"Have you?" Katara shot back.

"I don't need to meet a wraith to know it's bad news!"

"Look," Aang interrupted the beginning fight, his voice stronger than it normally was. Both siblings turned to look at him, mildly surprised, and he said, "I've decided to help these people. I wanted to talk to everyone, but the fact of the matter is, I am the Avatar. If I don't help this town, then what good am I for the world? I can't just pick and choose where I'm needed."

Sokka seemed to deflate at this statement, and Katara looked rather proud. No one said anything in response, prompting a bit of an awkward silence. Before the pause could become uncomfortable, Toph abruptly sat up and flexed her hands against the ground, frowning.

"We’ll probably have to go with that decision," she said, pointing in the direction of the town. "We have company."

Aang turned to look, and though he couldn't hear any people yet, he could make out the flickering light of torches approaching them from between the scattered trees. It was already dark out, making the lights standing out even stronger, and Aang found himself wondering what could have prompted anyone to come seek them out at this hour.

"Let's go meet them," Katara suggested, grabbing onto Toph's wrist and heading toward the woods. Toph allowed herself to be lead, though Aang suspected both she and Katara knew it was more for Katara's safety than her own. Toph didn't have any more trouble "seeing" at night than during the day.

Aang moved to follow them, but was stopped short by Sokka's hand on his shoulder. He tensed, knowing that Sokka was still angry by the way the discussion turned out, but he turned to look at him straight in the eyes.

"First off," Sokka began, with a serious expression that Aang didn't often see on his face, "I've got your back. I want you to know that."

Aang nodded. "Thank you, Sokka."

"But," Sokka added, "this doesn't put _you_ in danger, Aang. It puts Katara and Toph in more danger than both of us. My little _sister_ ," Sokka emphasized, and Aang could read the tension in his eyes. "And don't tell Toph I said it, but she's no stronger than the rest of us against a spirit."

"I know," Aang admitted, feeling the reality of the situation weigh down on his shoulders and missing the confidence he had felt only moments before. He laid his hand on Sokka's and gripped it. "I promise I'll banish the Wild Woman. I don't want them to get hurt either."

Sokka held his gaze for a tense, silent moment, then nodded and gave him a half-hearted grin, jerking his head in the direction that Katara and Toph had headed. "C'mon," he said, pulling Aang along by the shoulder. "We should probably see what the issue is."

They headed toward the flickering torchlight, following the dark outlines of Toph and Katara ahead of them. By the time Sokka and Aang arrived at the spot where everyone had stopped, things seemed to have calmed down a bit. Aang could see Lao Meiying standing at the head of the group, looking frazzled, with the farmer and his wife looking distraught beside her. A couple other men had come as well, including one of the young men from before, who had been eyeing Lao Meiying's charms with interest.

"What happened?" Aang asked as they approached, trying to look wise and stoic. He thought he saw Sokka roll his eyes, and figured the look was working.

"Another girl has been taken," Katara explained, looking worried.

"My precious Liwen!" the farmer cried out. His face was blotched red with anger and frustration, and he clenched his fist reflexively as he spoke, as if wishing for an opponent to attack. He whirled on the young man from before, shouting, "All because of this street boy-!"

"Honey, stop that!" chastised his wife quietly, though she didn't look at the boy in question.

The aforementioned "street boy" looked horrified and guilty, not daring to look at the man. He explained to Aang, pleadingly, "I bought her a charm! It took all of my savings, but I bought one!"

"Wait," Sokka interrupted, holding up a hand. "What happened, exactly?"

"Chen Dawei angered the Wild Woman," Lao Meiying explained, her voice as calm as she could manage to try and quell the rising emotions. "He did not stay on the safe pass."

"I was late!" Chen Dawei protested, though from his expression it was clear he knew this excuse was flimsy. "It would have taken too long to get to market by the regular path and the produce would have all rotted, and I just thought-"

"Oh, blast what you thought!" snarled the farmer angrily. "Because of you, my daughter was taken by the Wild Woman! All because you had the nerve to try and court her! Without my permission, I might add!"

"I bought her a charm!" Chen Dawei protested again. "I did! She must have taken it off to bathe or something."

"Did she know what it was for?" Katara asked.

"Of course!" Chen Dawei said. "He Liwen was worried about it too, when I told her that I had seen the image of the Wild Woman in the forest, but we both - well, I mean, the spirit never spoke to me. She just-" and at this juncture, the boy shivered, looking nervously into the dark forest around them. "She just glared at me," he finished weakly.

"That's all the Wild Woman needs to do," Lao Meiying said sadly, eyes distant. "She herself got no more warning."

"Whatever her methods," the farmer said, "my little girl is out there! Avatar," he pleaded, turning toward Aang and looking him straight in the eyes, "please tell me that you've decided to help us! Please tell me you can save my daughter!"

Aang hesitated at the sudden plea, knitting his brow, and Lao Meiying took this to be confusion. She stepped forward and explained, "The Wild Woman does not kill her victims immediately. Generally, it could take between two to three days."

What wasn't voiced was the ominous reality that hung over everyone's head: it could take between two to three days for the missing girl to suffer and die.

Aang swallowed, trying to quell the foul feeling in his stomach. He solidified his stance on the earth and felt a bit more confident as he said, "I'll go to find your daughter, sir. And I'll do my best to banish this spirit."

"Thank you," the farmer said gratefully, falling down to his knees in front of Aang. Startled by this action, which was shortly echoed by the farmer's wife, Aang froze, meeting eyes with Katara awkwardly. She shrugged back at him, though Aang got the impression she was amused by his disconcertion.

"One problem," Sokka said from his place behind Aang, calling the attention of the crowd toward him. "Do you guys know where she is?"

Silence followed the statement, and Lao Meiying admitted, "It's always different. The Wild Woman claims the entire forest as her own, and some girls are never found at all."

"There's no way he could search the entire forest!" Chen Dawei bemoaned, looking distraught. The farmer and his wife had gone still at Aang's feet, worry clear on their faces, and Aang bit his lip nervously. He looked at Katara again, who stared back with a helpless expression. Aang looked up at the sky, considering; perhaps with Appa, he could send out a search party one way while he took his glider the other - but no, it was too dark and the trees were too thick, they wouldn't be able to see through -

"I can find her," Toph's voice said from behind him. She flexed her feet into the soft earth, frowning a bit and concentrating. Then she nodded, "Yeah, I should be able to. I'll need everyone to stop moving around, though."

Aang, Sokka and Katara all obediently stopped moving, knowing Toph's strong abilities with earthbending, but the rest of the crowd was less accommodating. Only moments after Toph began to focus her energy - crouching down to put both hands on the ground as well, for extra power -, Chen Dawei stepped over to Sokka and whispered loudly, "What is she doing? Is she try-"

"I said to stop moving!" Toph commanded with a sharp tone. "And that includes moving your mouth!"

Chen Dawei went rigid in surprise, clearly intimidated. Aang, Sokka and Katara all exchanged amused glances. Everyone else in the group took heed of Toph's short temper and kept still, watching with interest as she dug her fingers and toes into the ground and knelt there motionlessly.

A few long moments later, Toph began to nod reflexively, and Aang was reminded of how the monks looked in the Air Temples when they were deep in meditation. Then Toph abruptly stood up, nodded once more decisively, and pointed without turning her head to the south west. "She's there," Toph confirmed, "about a mile away, by a stream. Still alive, too. I was able to sense her fighting."

"Oh," the farmer's wife said faintly, looking torn between being relief and terror.

"Let's go," Aang said, nodding at Katara and Sokka. He looked back at the rest of the party and said, "It'd be better to involve as few people as we can. We can find your daughter and bring her back."

"Thank you," Lao Meiying said solemnly, bowing to the four of them. The rest of the villagers made to speak as well, but Aang waved their comments away, knowing that time was of the essence.

He looked at Toph, saying, "Lead the way," knowing that unless Toph could feel the earth, finding He Li Wen would be next to impossible, even with Toph's spoken directions. Sokka and Katara fell in beside him and followed as Toph took off into the woods.


	2. PART TWO

** PART 2 **

 

Toph led them down to a dark, swampy area. As the trees grew thicker, the way grew more difficult to manage. Toph, of course, had little trouble and did her best to earthbend an easier path for the others to follow, but Toph couldn't control the crowded plant life around them. After the initial half mile, it was slow going.

"Don't worry," Toph informed them when Katara started to worry out loud about He Li Wen's safety. "I can still feel her, and she's fine." She paused, tilting her head as she felt out the vibrations with her feet, and added, "Hurt, but fine."

Katara was relieved to hear that, especially as the terrain became more treacherous the closer they traveled. Sokka was swearing viciously under his breath, swiping at branches and vines in his way, and Aang was swatting with frustration at the many bugs that swarmed around them. Katara was annoyed too, but tried to ignore it by focusing on keeping the unseen vines and branches away from Toph’s face.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of fighting off bugs and listening to Sokka curse at various plant life, Toph said, "She's just ahead, about fifteen feet to the right of the stream."

And sure enough, Katara could just make out the outline of a young girl in a white dressing gown, lying pinned underneath a dead tree. She was pushing against the trunk, even though Katara could tell that it would be impossible for her to move it. Katara stepped forward, anxious to help get to girl out, and wound up breaking a branch under her feet, hearing it snap with a sharp crack.

He Liwen heard it too, and she went utterly still, turning her head in their direction. "Is - is someone there?" she asked hesitantly. Then, desperately, she shouted, "Help me! Please! Someone help me!"

Katara moved to step forward, but Toph grabbed her arm and stopped her. Ignoring the sound of He Liwen crying out in front of them, Toph whispered, "Can you see the Wild Woman?"

"No," Sokka answered, staring over at the poor trapped girl with a pained expression on his face. "There's no one there but the girl."

"She'll be around here," Aang said, looking nervously at the dark trees surrounding them. Katara did the same, but could see nothing but the same unnerving shadows and hanging vines as before.

"I can't feel anything but the girl," Toph confirmed, "but I don't think we should all rush out there." She twisted her foot against the earth as if to test it, and said, "I can get her out with earthbending."

"I'll go out there," Aang said. "If the Wild Woman does come, I'll be able to distract her."

"I'll come with you too," Katara said. She looked over at He Liwen, who had started to call out even more desperately, straining against the fallen tree. "I can calm her down and tell her what Toph's going to do."

"Sounds good," Sokka said, standing over Toph as she knelt down and steadied her hands against the ground. "Give me a signal so I can tell Toph when to move."

Katara nodded, and then moved behind Aang as they stepped out into the clearing. He Liwen, upon seeing them, immediately said, "Oh, thank the land, you found me! Please! Please help me!"

Katara immediately hurried over to her, leaving Aang to stand anxiously in the middle of the clearing, clutching his staff tightly in one hand. She knelt by He Liwen and touched her hand, saying, "You're safe now, we're going to get you out."

"It's really heavy," He Liwen whimpered, pushing again against the dead tree. Now that she was up close, Katara could see that the young girl was a bit older than she was, and was bleeding from various cuts on her body. Her dress was ripped to shreds around her, and she shivered in the cold night air.

"One of my friends is an earthbender," Katara explained quickly. "She's going to get you out as soon as I tell her, but I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," He Liwen insisted, her voice cracking and belying her words. "Please, just get me out of here!"

"All right, let me just-" Katara turned as she said this, holding up a hand for Sokka to notice. She couldn't see him through the dim light, but underneath her, the earth began to shift, and Katara knew Toph had gotten the message. 

Unfortunately, even as she turned, Katara felt the air grow cold and bitter. The hair on the back of her arms stood on end, and she felt a rush of goosebumps all the way down her spine. She gasped in surprise, her breath escaping in a little burst of fog.

"Oh no," He Liwen whispered despairingly, noticing the weather change. "Oh, no, she's coming back..."

"Aang," Katara called out in warning. "Aang, she's coming!" The earth swelled up around Katara as she said it, encasing her and He Liwen, and Katara shouted, "Toph, stop!"

The soil around her froze in place, half covering the two of them, and Katara turned back to Aang, asking, "Can you see her? What's going on?"

Aang was motionless, standing ten feet away and staring up into the trees. Katara could see his how tense shoulders and back were, still bare despite the cold. Around them, the swamp seemed to have grown lifeless; no longer were insects swarming around them, nor were the sounds of owls and frogs to be heard. Instead, a heavy, pressing silence persisted, making the icy dark seem all the more terrifying as they all waited in anticipation.

Aang replied quietly, sounding hesitant, "I can't see her."

No sooner than the words had left his mouth, another voice from behind Katara whispered, "But I can see you, boy."

Katara and Aang both whirled around to face the newcomer, dirt crumbling around Katara as she did so. On the ground beside her, He Liwen simply closed her eyes tightly and froze, shivering in fear.

The Wild Woman looked nothing like what Katara had imagined, but still everything that her name implied. The spirit was thin and bony, with long black hair that was mussed and dirty. Her dress was ripped up and practically torn off her person, baring long legs halfway up her thigh. She looked a little older than Katara, but her eyes were sunken and pitch black as she stared over at Aang with a foul little smile on her face.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

The Wild Woman's skin glowed faintly, shining an eerie pearl color in the darkness. Standing stark against the pale backdrop were multiple cuts and bruises, deep purples and blues around her neck and all over her exposed skin, and dripping, sharp streams of red from the deep gouges around her wrists and ankles. Katara gagged as she noticed maggots and flies crawling around her tattered clothes and underneath her skin, squirming and moving along with the spirit as though part of her.

She stood on the muddy ground, glowing unnaturally and almost seeming to float. As she stepped forward, her coal-black eyes locked on Aang, her image appeared to flicker, and Katara felt as though she was blinking rapidly though her eyes stayed wide open. She passed by Katara and He Li Wen without pause, not seeming to notice them in favor of Aang.

"You have entered my forest, boy," the Wild Woman hissed, and her voice was like the shriek of steel against stone, piercing and harsh. Katara hunched down and huddled next to He Liwen, keeping her warm hands pressed against the young girl's shoulders. He Liwen leaned into the warmth gratefully, though she kept her eyes tightly shut against the wraith standing just shy of them.

"I," Aang began, stopping short as the Wild Woman approached him slowly. He swallowed, and then continued, "I am the Avatar, Wild Woman. I, uh, I command you to leave this place."

This seemed to give the wraith pause, and she frowned. Her formed flickered a little more rapidly, then calmed. She finally replied, "You banish me?" Her confused expression melted into something cruel and knowing, and she said, "You are a young man. You have love in your heart."

"I am the Avatar," Aang said again, looking a little panicked that she was ignoring him. "I command you to leave these woods!"

The Wild Woman dismissed him, stepping forward at the same excruciatingly slow pace. She continued, hissing bitterly, "You have maidens in your heart. In your twisted, foul little heart."

Aang's eyes went wide at the mention of maidens, and he looked quickly at Katara. Sharply, he ordered, "Katara, get her out of here!"

"But you-" Katara couldn't help but protest, staring in horror as the Wild Woman continued to advance on Aang.

"Leave now!" Aang shouted. Katara felt frozen, torn between staying or leaving, but Toph made the decision for her, moving the earth in one swift sweep of dirt. The last thing Katara saw before the swamp swallowed her and He Liwen up was Aang's pale face, staring fearfully at the flickering wraith before him.

 

 

\--

 

 

As Katara and He Liwen vanished under a swell of mud, the Wild Woman whipped around and stared at the place they had just been. The cold grew suddenly sharper, and Aang could see frost forming on the grass and trees around him.

"You stole my maiden!" the Wild Woman snarled viciously, whirling back to glare at Aang. "You," she added darkly, her entire form seeming to tremble in anger. "You did this, you foul man, you _foul_ boy, you took your maiden and made her steal mine, you deceitful boy, _you took my maiden_!"

Aang backed up as she advanced, and though he knew she wasn't actually growing in size, Aang could feel her energy growing along with her rage. The ground crunched under her feet as she glided over the now frozen blades, and she glowered down at Aang with fire in her black, dead eyes.

"You stole that girl!" Aang finally found his voice, whipping around his glider to hold in front of him like a weapon. "You took her from her family! She's not your maiden!"

The Wild Woman sneered at him, hissing, "They are all my maidens! They all belong to me from birth. I am the only one who will teach them the foulness of the world, the bitterness, the despair; I alone will teach them that men, petty, greedy, lying _men_ are not to be trusted." She came even closer to Aang, her voice growing dangerously quiet, and she said, "I kill them for their purity, for their innocence, for their youth. I kill them as a favor, boy, and I do it before you can kill them first!"

Aang stood his ground, less due to bravery than because the Wild Woman was inches away and he felt frozen, her cold eyes keeping him motionless. They stood like that for a long moment, her icy anger pinning him in place. Aang could hardly think to breathe.

The Wild Woman smiled a slow, sinuous smirk. "I'll let you have my maiden, boy," she said, crunching a maggot between her teeth as she spoke, "in return for yours."

Then she vanished abruptly, the cold dissipating with her absence, and left Aang standing there in the middle of a dark, empty swamp. Aang could finally breathe, shaking the wake of the wraith's presence. With his first breath, however, the true meaning of the Wild Woman's final, ominous words struck him.

"Katara!" Aang cried out as he whirled around, opening his glider and taking to the sky in one swift movement. His mind was blank with terror; all he could think about was getting back to her before anything could happen. He took off flying as fast as he possibly could, desperate to get to the others before it was too late.

 

 

\--

 

 

One moment, Sokka was standing over Toph, waiting as he watched Katara kneeling next to the girl pinned under the fallen tree. With the appearance of the Wild Woman, however, he barely had a few moments to register its disgusting presence before the Avatar suddenly shouted at Katara to run. Sokka saw his little sister freeze where she knelt, but that was the last he saw, as the next second his vision was blocked by a mound of thick mud.

"Grab onto my waist," instructed Toph calmly. He couldn't see anything, but he knew approximately where she had been kneeling before, and he latched his arms around her tiny form. Immediately, he felt a little more comfortable about being below ground and unable to see. He could feel Toph's arms moving in front of him; from the feel of it, her forearms were completely buried in the thick, swampy earth. He felt Toph jerk her arms sharply back, thrusting herself backward into his chest, but before he could question the reason he heard the rumbling sound of earth approaching.

Not two seconds later, another chasm opened up into theirs, and Sokka felt two warm bodies run into his with a chorus of startled gasps.

"Katara?" Sokka asked, not trusting himself to reach out as he could barely tell where either girl was kneeling.

"Yep," Katara affirmed, adding unnecessarily, "Got He Liwen here, Toph, we're good."

"Hold on," Toph said in response. From the sound of the earth moving and the sudden feeling of a body pressed against his back, Sokka got the impression that Toph had shoved both girls toward them with a push of the mud. "We're gonna be moving fast."

"Wait, wait," He Liwen gasped worriedly, her breath against Sokka's neck, "You could drop us? Underground?"

"No," Toph replied succinctly, and Sokka resisted a smile as he imagined her irritated expression, "but I figured non-earthbenders would enjoy having someone to hold on to when the ground starts moving beneath you."

"We do, Toph, thanks," Katara assured her quickly, sounding relieved.

With nothing more than a grunt and a quick shift of her arms, Toph propelled them into motion. After the first gut-wrenching swell of earth under their knees, the ride was relatively straight-forward. Sokka didn't feel anything but Toph's form beneath his and He Li Wen's pressed behind him, with the former shifting rapidly in time with the pace of the trip and the latter trembling in fear. He imagined he could feel Katara's arms braced against his sides as well, supporting the injured girl between them, but to be honest, he tried not to think too much during the entire journey. It was one thing to know that you were safe with a master Earthbender leading the way underneath the ground, but it was something completely different to actually be shot forward through an utterly black tunnel, with nothing but the people around you to give you bearing. As it was, Sokka clung tightly to Toph's waist, buried his face in between her twisting shoulder blades and just waited for it to be over.

It seemed like forever before they emerged above ground, and they did so with a jolt and an explosion into the air. Sokka managed to hold onto Toph's waist and stay rooted to the earth, but He Liwen and Katara were flung several feet ahead of them, landing at the base of a tall oak tree. Sokka blinked rapidly in the open air, the darkness of the evening suddenly seeming rather bright in comparison to the tunnel.

"Get off me, you big oaf," Toph mumbled below him, sounding exhausted.

Sokka grinned down at her, unable to contain his relief at being out from beneath the ground. "Aw, but you're so comfy," he teased even as he was standing up, grabbing her shoulders and helping her stand as he did so.

The trip had clearly taken a lot out of Toph, as she didn't even bother to comment back or complain about being helped up. She wavered a bit upon standing, giving Sokka the impression she was barely managing to avoid leaning against him.

"Where are we?" Katara asked, but before anyone could respond, they got their answer.

"Liwen!" a deep male voice called out, and Sokka turned to see the large form of the farmer running up, his slight wife just paces behind him. They embraced their daughter instantly, looking relieved and tearful.

"Oh, you're safe," the farmer was saying, clutching He Liwen tightly to his chest. "My baby girl, I'm so glad you're safe."

Sokka felt moved by the reunion in front of him, smiling without thinking about it. But as he saw the rest of the party approaching, he realized that they had made it all the way back to camp. Just past the trees, he could see their tents still set up, with Appa and Momo watching over them.

He turned to regard Toph, who hadn't moved since standing. "You got us all the way back to camp?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah," she murmured, "and if you don't mind, I'm gonna pass out as soon as Baldie gets back."

"Well, I'm impressed," Sokka said simply, patting her on the shoulder. She smiled faintly in return, and ignored him when he left his hand there, trying his best to stabilize her without being obvious about it.

"You defeated the Wild Woman?" asked Lao Meiying as she came toward them, her footsteps careful in the dark woods. She and a few other villagers still held lit torches, the light shocking after all that time in the dark. Sokka winced against the sudden brightness.

"I'm... not sure," Katara said, looking back the way they had come with an apprehensive expression. "Aang told us to run, and we - well, He Liwen was hurt, so..."

"We booked it," Sokka confirmed simply, shrugging. "Aang's the only one who would have been able to lay a hand on that spirit anyway," he added, more for Katara's benefit than anything, because his little sister was starting to look worried. "I don't think we could have helped. She was so creepy looking, too, ugh."

Toph frowned beside him, asking quietly, "Wait, so you guys actually saw her?"

"Yeah," Sokka answered, confused. "She was gross and all rotted up," he went on, and felt a little bad when he saw He Liwen bury her face deeper into her father's shoulder. Katara looked revolted.

Toph made a face and opened her mouth to say something, but the temperature around them went abruptly cold, sending a sharp chill down Sokka's spine. He clutched his club with his right hand while his left tightened around Toph's shoulder, and he looked around the dark forest nervously.

"Oh no," Katara said, also recognizing the significance. She turned to the villagers and instructed, "Quick, you all need to get out of here. Take He Liwen and run!"

"What?" Chen Dawei asked, hovering just shy of He Liwen and her family. "What's going on?"

"The Wild Woman," Sokka explained, eyes darting left and right as he kept a watch on the woods. "She followed us."

"Aang," whispered Katara, and Sokka was suddenly gripped with the realization that if the wraith had followed them, it might mean that it had beaten Aang. He forced himself not to consider that possibility and focus on the present, where the grass was already beginning to freeze at their feet.

The torches suddenly went out, shrouding the meadow in darkness, and shouts of fear emerged from the cluster of villagers.

"Run by Appa!" Katara shouted, pointing. She jumped forward and shoved at Chen Dawei, gesturing frantically. Finally, the villagers got the idea; lead by Lao Meiying, they scattered and ran toward the giant air-bison, He Liwen still clutched in her father's arms.

Katara, Sokka and Toph were left standing alone as the air grew bitter with cold and the grass went white with frost. The wait went on for a few terribly long moments as Katara and Sokka both looked around nervously, waiting for the telltale glow of the wraith. Toph was comparatively still, frowning down at the ground, but Sokka could see her toes flexing in the dirt.

The silence stretched horribly before the Wild Woman finally appeared, and when she did, it was still somehow from behind them. The pearl white shine caught Sokka's eye and he whirled around, standing just in front of Katara. He had slid his left hand down to clutch Toph's, who didn't move other than shifting her stance to anchor herself.

"Is she here?" Toph asked quietly when she felt Sokka jerk. She could probably feel his heartbeat through the earth, Sokka supposed, and Katara's too.

"Yeah," he whispered back. He couldn't take his eyes off the wraith's slowly approaching form, silent and deadly. Her eyes seemed to pin him to the ground, jet black and burning with a cold fire, and all around her feet the earth twisted and squirmed with hundreds of pale maggots. Blood dripped steadily from the gashes on her wrists and ankles. As if noticing the attention, blood suddenly started to leak from her mouth and eyes as well, dripping onto the many dark purple bruises that were scattered on her body.

Toph took a breath, and then said something that made Sokka's blood grow cold.

"I can't feel her," she murmured. "All I can feel is the temperature. She's not really there."

Sokka didn't want to think about how they were going to fight something that wasn't really there. He shivered in the cold air and stared back at the wraith silently, waiting for her to do something. If she was able to follow them this far, he didn't imagine that running away would make much of a difference at all.

The Wild Woman regarded them with a dark glare, and then she tilted her head and smiled faintly. "My maiden," she whispered, sounding almost fond, but in a way that twisted Sokka’s stomach nonetheless. "Oh, my maiden, you shouldn't have stolen what was mine."

She glided a step forward, but before she could say anything else, there was a rush of wind from above, and Aang shot down, whipping his glider around and shattering the image of the Wild Woman with a sharp swipe of its retracted form. The Wild Woman vanished from in front of them, leaving Aang to crouch there, breathing heavily.

"Katara!" he cried out, leaping up and grabbing her, pulling her away from the center of the meadow and toward their campsite. "She's after you!" he insisted, eyes wide with panic.

"What?" Sokka shouted, alarmed.

"She's pissed off we stole her maiden," Aang explained rapidly, giving up on running away with a frustrated sigh and opting to stand in front of Katara with a determined expression instead. He held his staff out like a sword and watched the dark forest with a keen eye. "She said she was going to take mine instead, because we took her."

"Aang," Sokka said, unable to keep the anger out of his voice, "I told you-!"

"I know!" he cried.

"Yell at him later, Sokka," Katara said, sounding irritated. Sokka imagined he would be too if a creepy dead woman was out to kill him, but knowing that didn't help ease the tension.

"Yeah," Toph echoed from beside him, her hand now actively clinging to his. "Now we have to fight a disgusting wraith that I can't even feel."

"At least you don't have to look at her," Sokka shot back.

"Yeah, but I can still smell her," said Toph, making a face.

"Aang," Katara said, ignoring their exchange, "don't worry! I still have the charm from before; I'll be safe. We can fight her off."

"Unless-" Sokka began, glancing down at Toph with a sudden, horrible thought, remembering the Wild Woman’s words just moments before Aang's arrival. 

But before he could voice it, the Wild Woman appeared before them again, looking even more enraged than before as she glared down at Aang. Standing with Toph about five feet behind Aang and Katara, Sokka could still feel the wave of intense chill that emanated from the ferocious wraith, like being plunged into an icy river in the middle of winter. His breath caught with the shock of it.

"You foul boy," she snarled at Aang, hair suddenly rising as though connected to her anger, like a cat. "You will not stop me from taking what is rightfully mine." The last word was screamed piercingly, and Sokka took the moment to yank Toph closer to him. He pulled them both a few steps away from the wraith, staring at the terrifying image she presented. Aang stood in front of Katara protectively, his stance defensive. Katara had pulled out her bending water and had it at the ready. More importantly, she had a glittering jewel around her neck.

The Wild Woman glowered at Aang in the wake of her scream, but slowly, her eyes drifted over to Katara. She looked quizzically at the charm around her neck and pursed her rotted lips. Looking back at Aang, a half-smirk growing on her face, she said, "Those little trinkets burn so badly, little boy."

"You will leave her be," Aang said sharply in return, not moving an inch from his position in front of Katara.

Sokka felt a twist in his stomach for every moment that damned smirk stayed on the Wild Woman's face, certain they were missing something and suspecting with dread what it might be. Before he could say anything, the Wild Woman leaned forward, her mauled face hovering inches away from Aang’s. Sokka could see Aang shaking, but the young man stood his ground, his expression tight and determined.

"Let me tell you a secret, you _disgusting_ little boy," she whispered, in a twisted imitation of a mother. She inched forward a little more, her lips a scant distance away from Aang's face, and she hissed, "Just a little closer, and I'll tell you, you'll like it, I promise-"

Sokka knew then, before she said anything.

He knew what she was planning by the way she stared at Toph over Aang's shoulder.

"The thing is," the Wild Woman cooed, her black eyes staring darkly in Sokka's direction even as she spoke, "you're guarding the wrong maiden."

Abruptly, the Wild Woman flickered and disappeared.

Sokka saw it coming. He had known what the wraith had been planning, and still he felt the next few moments pass as though in slow motion. He whirled around to face Toph, her hand still gripped tightly in his own, but even as he turned he saw the cold, pearl-white glow of the Wild Woman standing behind her.

Unable to sense the wraith, Toph uttered a startled shriek as icy, rotted arms wrapped around her, yanking her up off the ground and pressing her against the maggot-infested remains of the wraith's dress. Sokka clung as tight as he could, but still Toph's hand was ripped from his, and he was left standing there as she was pulled backwards into the Wild Woman's embrace. Grinning foully over Toph's shoulder, the Wild Woman turned her lips against Toph's cheek in a grotesque parody of a warm kiss, ignoring Toph as the young girl struggled in terror against her.

Without another word, they both vanished.

Sokka, Aang and Katara were left alone in the suddenly dark meadow, staring at nothing.


	3. PART THREE

** PART 3 **

 

In the wake of Toph's disappearance, Aang couldn't do much more than stare disbelievingly at the empty, dark forest around them. Proper thoughts failed to form in his mind, leaving him with nothing but the growing realization that he had made a terrible mistake.

This thought was compounded when Sokka whirled around and glared at him, anger clear in his eyes.

"You said she was after Katara!" Sokka accused, his fists clenched at his side tightly.

"I," Aang began, unable to look away from the spot where Toph had just been. "I... that's what I thought, that's what she said-"

"What she said," Sokka repeated, and Aang couldn't remember the last time he had seen Sokka this angry. He asked, "What exactly did the wraith say, Aang?"

His thoughts didn’t grow any clearer, though as the reality of Toph's absence sunk in, Aang could feel his stomach twisting up in painful, guilty knots. He swallowed, murmuring, "Um, she said-," as he tried to remember the exact words.

Finally, he recalled, "She said my maiden stole her maiden…" He frowned as guilt assuaged him, adding, "I thought she meant Katara! I mean, Katara was there-"

" _Katara_ ," Sokka shouted, "wasn't the person who stole that girl! Toph was! The Wild Woman was talking about Toph, Aang!"

"I didn't know that!" Aang defended, though in the back of his mind, a cruel voice was accusing him at the same time, saying _you should have known; you would have figured it out, if you had bothered to think of Toph at all_. Aang wrung his hands at the dual accusations of both his inner voice and Sokka, curling his shoulders in defensively without thinking. He hadn't thought about Toph, not once after Sokka mentioned her in passing before they had left to rescue He Li Wen. Even though he knew Toph was at just as much risk as Katara, he had let himself be entirely concerned with the latter.

"You should have!" Sokka said, unwittingly mimicking Aang's internal monologue. "If you had just told us what she actually said, instead of insisting it was Katara-"

"Will you _stop it_?" Katara interjected, stepping in between Aang and Sokka to glare at her older brother. "Can't you see he feels bad enough? Yelling at Aang isn't going to help anything!"

"We could have stopped her!" Sokka yelled back, though as he spoke Aang saw a mirror of his own guilt reflected on Sokka's face. "If we had just realized-" 

Sokka's voice broke slightly, and he looked away from Katara with a shameful twist to his expression. He said, "I knew what she was doing, I saw the wraith staring at Toph. I was right there – I had her hand, and I let her go…"

"Sokka," Katara said gently, laying both her hands firmly on Sokka's shoulders, forcing him to look at her. "It's not your fault any more than it's Aang's." She turned to include Aang in the last statement, her face set in a resolute expression. She continued decisively, "Right now, we need to focus on getting Toph back. We just need to find her like we did He Liwen-"

"How?" Sokka interrupted, his anger flaring up at her words. "The only way we found the other girl in the first place was because of Toph!" He met Katara's cold expression for a moment, but soon redirected his glare to the ground, crossing his arms and gripping them tightly with his fists.

"We'll figure something out," Katara said sharply, clearly annoyed with Sokka's attitude. She turned to Aang and asked, quietly, "Do you think we'd be able to use Appa to scan the forest?"

"Um," Aang replied, still finding it difficult to think over his guilt. He scrambled for a response, staring up at the sky and trying not to think about Toph alone in the hands of the deadly wraith. He considered the option, but after noting the thick canopy of trees and the dark night, he quickly realized that such a feat next to impossible.

"We'd have to wait until morning," he finally managed, heart sinking at the realization. Toph would be stuck alone in the woods all night, freezing cold in the presence of the Wild Woman. 

A fleeting thought struck him, latching on the possibility of Toph escaping by herself with earthbending, but he dismissed it as soon as it appeared; if it was as easy as earthbending her way out, surely the villagers would have figured it out by now. He could only imagine how scared Toph would be cut off from the earth, and forced himself to stop thinking about it before the guilt consumed him.

The group stood quiet after Aang’s statement, all obviously thinking about Toph alone in the woods with worry clear on their faces. However, before anyone could break the silence, it was shattered by an outside voice.

"May I be of any help?" the low, gravelly voice of Lao Meiying cut in, and all three travelers turned to see the old woman standing at the edge of the meadow with Chen Dawei shadowing her nervously. The newly lit torch in her hand highlighted her pained expression.

"We all saw what happened," she informed them, voice quiet with sympathy. Aang abruptly recalled that her own daughter had been taken by the wraith and had never been recovered.

"He Liwen is safe with her family," Chen Dawei mentioned quietly, looking at them, Sokka in particular, with trepidation. "But… we thought, um, maybe we could help you find your friend?"

"No one has ever been rescued from the Wild Woman before," Lao Meiying explained. "At least, not to common knowledge. When you saved He Liwen, it clearly angered the Wild Woman a lot. I imagine if she's that enraged, she might bring your friend to Lost Man's Cave."

"The Lost Man's Cave?" Katara repeated, frowning. They had all formed a semi-circle around Lao Meiying as she spoke.

"We suspect it's where the Wild Woman was killed so long ago," the old woman said. "It's located in the far north of the forest, toward the mountains. No one ever travels near the area, for to do so as a man means certain discovery by the wraith. Even as a woman, it's a dangerous area naturally, and it’s very easy to get lost. I am not a bender myself, but I've spoken to some Earthbenders who have felt out the land, and they all sensed something spiritually… _off_ about the area."

"If she did die there, that could be where her spirit is concentrated," Aang mused thoughtfully. "An unnatural rift between our world and the spirit world would be enough to make the land feel wrong."

"It might be where the Wild Woman took your friend," Chen Dawei offered. He was half-turned away from them, periodically looking back at where He Liwen and her family were huddled around Appa, his expression wistful. He gave them all a small, hopeful smile. "It would be a good place to start, at least, rather than just flying around hoping to see something."

"These woods are too large to play guessing games," Lao Meiying agreed.

"No, that's very helpful," Katara said, her blue eyes lighting up with this small bit of hopeful news. "If we know where we're going, we can fly Appa there right now!"

"The woods around the Lost Man's Cave are much too thick for your bison to get through," Lao Meiying said. "You can fly part of the way, but once you cross over the river, you'll have to walk. From there, the way is very difficult to maneuver, especially at night."

"We're going now," Sokka said simply, his tone decisive. He didn't sound as angry as before, but his words had a bite to them. As they all looked at him silently, he added, "I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway."

Aang nodded. "We'll go now," he agreed. "If we take a couple torches, we should be fine. The sooner we get to Toph, the better."

"Besides," Katara added darkly, her expression wry, "it's not like daylight would help keep the Wild Woman away anyway."

 

 

\--

 

 

Toph awoke to the feeling of water dripping down her arms in a languid stream, brushing by her inner elbow and making her twitch with a sudden twinge of nerves. Her head felt heavy, hanging down to rest against her chest, and as she grew more aware, she felt a deep throbbing pain in her wrists and ankles. She shifted experimentally and immediately wished she hadn't when the dull throbbing changed to a sharp shooting pain, making her gasp in agony. She couldn't help the whimper that escaped upon that discovery, her eyes shut tight against the fire in her limbs.

When the wave of pain had died down, Toph shifted a little more, but slower this time. Her head ached, as did her shoulders, though by far the worst injury seemed to be in her wrists and ankles. From her position, Toph got the impression that both her extremities were tied down by something, and by the way she was sagging downward, she assumed she was tied upright, not lying on the ground. It felt like she was tied down with a bunch of slime-covered ropes, while something else thick and heavy pressed her tightly against what felt like a jagged wall: it was firm and straight, but with many dips and juts. 

Shifting against it – and trying not to jostle her wrists too much in the process, as just breathing made jolts of pain shoot down her arms – Toph tried to get some sort of feel for the object she was tied against. It only took a few moments for her to realize that it was a thick tree, and that the many ropes were probably vines of some kind. Toph didn't want to think about what kind of tree was designed to pin people to it.

She considered these observations and realized, with a growing dread, that the water she felt streaming down her arms was probably blood.

"Gross," Toph muttered, more to hear her own voice that anything else. It came out dry and cracked, but it was at least familiar. 

Unfortunately, hearing her voice only made her abruptly aware of the heavy silence that surrounded her. She couldn't feel anything; even if her feet hadn't been numb with pain, Toph couldn't sense any ground close enough for her to get a toe on. She was tied against a tree above the earth, rendering her well and truly blind.

"Okay, okay," Toph said to herself as she felt the first swell of panic begin in her chest, her breath already beginning to grow short. "Okay, Toph, stop it, stop it. You’re _fine_ , you’re breathing, and okay, you’re bleeding and there’s no earth but – _stop it_ , you’re _fine—_ " 

She forced herself to take some deep breaths, focusing only on her breathing for a few long moments. She could feel herself shivering in fear and hated it, but really, when it came down to it, Toph didn't know what else she was supposed to feel. She didn't even know how she had gotten there.

Trying her best not to hyperventilate, Toph frantically tried to recall what had happened. They had been waiting for the Wild Woman to attack. Toph remembered feeling everyone's heightened heartbeats through her feet, judging where the wraith was by Aang's position. Sokka had been keeping a death grip on Toph's hand, pulling her away from the radiating cold, and Toph had been getting rather annoyed with not being able to sense the spirit at all when Wild Woman said—

_"You're guarding the wrong maiden."_

– and then she had been pulled up, blinded by slimy, cold limbs as they pinned her against a solid chest, her hand tearing from Sokka's even as she fought, and then—

Then she woke up here, cold and alone and tied against a tree.

The Wild Woman had taken her.

She kept as much attention as she could on her breathing, her mind working rapidly beneath the steady flow of air. _Breathe in— one… two… three… breathe out—_

A few crucial facts stood stark in her mind: one, she was trapped against the tree, and if her initial struggles proved anything, she wasn't likely to escape on her own. Two, she was blind— really blind, without even her earthbending to help, and that reality only supported her first point all the more. And three, she was hungry, exhausted, and shivering. Unless she was so deep in the woods that no sunlight could penetrate, Toph assumed it was still night.

She considered the story that Aang had told her about the Wild Woman. She knew the wraith tortured maidens and left them to die, which wasn't really helping Toph keep from panicking at the moment. So, trapped as she was, Toph figured her best bet was hoping that Aang, Sokka and Katara managed to find her. 

In the back of her mind, a traitorous voice noted how difficult that would be, given the sheer size of the forest, but Toph resolutely ignored it. They would find her. They would. Or by the land, she would come back and haunt Aang _for the rest of his life_.

As it was, Toph discovered after a few long minutes of hanging against her bonds that she was not suited to patiently waiting for rescue. The hungry growls of her stomach paled in comparison to the stark cold of the night. She couldn't control the shivers that wracked her body and sent shooting pains through her arms and legs every time she shuddered. 

But worse than all of that was the feeling of overwhelming helplessness. 

Toph _hated_ that feeling. She hadn't really felt that way since she first met the badgermoles and learned earthbending. No matter how much her parents tried to make her rely on others, Toph had resisted her entire life, carving out her independence with her bending. 

Now she was forced to wait, bound and weak, until her friends came to save her. Pride might be a vice, but her pride was well-earned, _thank you_ , and getting it forcibly taken away was infuriating.

Besides, she considered as another wave of cold hit her and made her tremble, at least if she was actively doing something she could ignore the unnatural silence around her. She longed for Aang and the others to show up already, just to stop the growing terror in her mind.

However, Toph hadn't been awake for long before the air around her grew abruptly colder. She could feel the bite of frost growing on the vines around her, freezing the blood streaming over her arms and feet against her skin. Toph felt her heart racing even before her mind caught up with the only reason why the weather would change so rapidly, remembering the wraith's presence from before.

"My maiden," a hissing voice whispered from inches away, making Toph jerk in surprise. She winced as the action made her injures burn sharply. The voice grew nearer, and Toph smelled rot on the surprisingly hot breath that brushed by her cheek. She cringed away from the foul presence. "My precious maiden, you bleed so beautifully, my dearest heart."

Toph said nothing. The silence from before was suddenly incredibly appealing compared to the horror that she now faced, a wraith that was close enough for Toph to smell. It was like being surrounded by rot and decay. She held her breath as long as she could, and gagged on the taste of the wraith's stench when she finally had to take in air.

A cold hand pressed against Toph's cheek, forcing Toph to look up uselessly at the wraith. She still couldn’t see anything, of course, but from the strength of odor she could tell the Wild Woman's face was bare inches from her own. The hand clasping her face was dry and icy cold, and Toph could feel things moving in it, crawling out from beneath the thin skin onto Toph's face. 

Toph closed her eyes and mouth tightly, trying to hold fast against the wraith, not wanting to break, not now, even though she was shaking with the urge to scream.

"I saved you," the Wild Woman murmured, her voice somehow both piercing and quiet. "The men, they kill you, they kill us; they take us and pet us and make us theirs, and then they _kill_ us, they _use_ us, they _fuck_ us, and we die." The hand against her cheek shifted, and Toph felt a pair of cold lips press against her temple.

The horrible voice continued against her ear, the hot breath making Toph shiver more than the frigid air around her. "I will kill you, my darling child," she whispered, and Toph felt the hand on her cheek slide down her neck, sharp nails digging in all the while. She could feel new, hot blood welling up in the gashes. The hand came to a rest at the collar of her tunic, cold fingers resting just under the cuff.

"I will kill you," the Wild Woman continued, sounding almost excited by the prospect, "and you will become one with me, sustaining me in my life. But I will not use you, my maiden," she insisted, and the hand drifted under Toph's tunic, cutting deep rents in her skin. Suddenly, both cold hands were against Toph, tearing at her tunic and digging sharp nails into her bare skin.

"Stop it!" Toph snapped, unable to stay silent as the hands drifted lower, piercing the more tender flesh of her chest. One icy hand drifted to glide against her side, just under her small breasts, and it slide down her waist before tearing into her tunic just above her hip. Toph squirmed away from the invasion, shrieking, "Stop it; _stop it! Let me go!_

The Wild Woman ignored her, whispering words that sounded like dying insects in her ears— words that didn't form sentences but pictures. Toph didn't quite imagine it— couldn't exactly see it, and not just because she was blind— but she felt the Wild Woman's story. 

She knew without reason the way the men's hands felt on her shoulders, shoving her down against the frosted grass outside the cave; she cried out as they kicked her, struck her, screamed at her for the things she hadn't done; she sobbed as they plowed into her again and again, and though the physical pain grew numb and muted, the feeling of desperation— of helplessness and fear— grew all the stronger. Toph was suddenly keenly aware of how it felt to die alone in the woods, left for nature to take its course because she couldn't move through the pain of her injuries. The Wild Woman had died frozen against the ground, naked and bleeding and cold.

Toph came out of the waking dream as though she had been underwater, suddenly aware of herself and the hissing sound of the Wild Woman pressed against her. Sharp nails dug into her skin and ripped at her clothing, but they abruptly stopped. One hand pressed splayed across her chest while the other dug painfully into her hipbone. The Wild Woman kissed her just shy of her ear, and whispered, "I'll let you die a maiden, my lovely little girl. This much I can give you."

The cold, fleshy hands moved again, and Toph was reminded of the false memory of the men, how they thrust and touched and forced; suddenly, she could think of nothing but escape, her logical mind vanished in her intense desire to get away. She struggled fiercely, ignoring the shooting pain her bindings cause her, and heard her own terrified voice screaming, "Let me go! Let me go! Letmego, letmego, letmegoletmegoletmego-!"

Just when Toph thought she couldn't deal with it anymore, the groping hands vanished. Toph gasped, shrinking back against the jagged tree bark anxiously, but the hands didn't return. She sniffed tentatively, but could smell no rot or feces. The air wasn't bitter cold anymore, and there was no longer the endless stream of whispered threats and promises. The Wild Woman was gone.

Toph was alone again.

She didn't feel the sob coming, but was instead overtaken as she felt hot tears against her cheeks, her chest tightening and making her breath catch painfully. She had never been so terrified before in her life; not even when she had gotten lost in the caves before she could "see", not when she had been kidnapped for ransom before she left her family, _never_. The feel of the Wild Woman's hands - of the phantom men's hands - it made her skin crawl and her stomach twist in revulsion, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up and make it go away. But her hands and legs were still bound and bleeding against the tree, and now she had bloody gashes around her chest and hips. She was still trapped.

Slowly, Toph's mind caught up with her body, and she began to calm her breathing. Only then did she notice that the forest was utterly silent. The air, which had felt warm compared to the icy feel of the Wild Woman, grew cold again as it blew through the tattered remains of her clothing. Toph shivered and drew herself inward as much as she could, pressing her face into one arm and feeling sticky half-dried blood smear against her cheek. All the while, she concentrated on her breathing, in and out, trying to ignore the terror that kept trying to take her over.

_They'll find me_ , she thought desperately, counting one-two with every breath. _They'll find me_. It was the only thing she could focus on to distract her from her situation and the memories of the wraith. The knowledge that her friends wouldn't just leave her— that they knew what had happened and were searching, despite the Wild Woman's efforts— was the only thing that kept the fear at bay and enabled her to concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, counting every time she did.

_They'll find me._

 

 

\--

 

 

It was taking too long.

This was the only thing Sokka could think as he rode on Appa's back, eyes pinned to the ground below. He could barely see the ground through the thick trees, and suspected this would be the case regardless of the time. They had been traveling for nearly a half an hour on Appa's back, heading for the northernmost part of the forest, and every passing second made Sokka's hands clench tighter around his club.

He _had_ her. The memory of Toph's hand in his, ripped out of his grip like it was nothing, replayed over and over in his mind. Her shocked face as the Wild Woman smiled cruelly behind her was all he could see. Even as they traveled, flying fast to find her, Sokka couldn't help but gnaw over the memory. He had known the Wild Woman's intentions before anyone. He yelled at Aang for not realizing what the wraith meant, but Sokka knew that he was really just berating himself - he _had_ understood, but clearly that didn't mean anything, because he still hadn't been able to save her.

A warm hand touched his, and Sokka looked up to see Katara sitting next to him, her blue eyes nearly black in the dim light. She offered him a concerned smile, and said, "We'll get her back."

Sokka couldn't will a smile in return, and simply stared back at her with a dark expression. "I should have taken her and run the instant I knew," he muttered without thinking, unable to stop his thoughts from spilling out.

Katara leaned over and rested her head on Sokka's shoulder, reminding Sokka of sitting around the campfire at home, listening to Gran-Gran tell stories of the tribes of old. He swallowed as a pang of homesickness hit him, for a moment longing desperately for a time when he didn't have to feel this fear.

Gently, Katara said, "No one could have stopped it." She put an arm around his shoulders and Sokka sank back into his sister's embrace. "The Wild Woman was more powerful than we thought, but now we know. We can get Toph out of the forest."

"We don't even know if she's at the Lost Man's cave," Sokka debated bitterly. He could feel Appa slowing down even as he said that, and glanced over to see Aang leaning forward and talking to the bison quietly.

"We'll deal with that if we have to. Let's focus on finding the cave first," Katara said, reminding Sokka of home again, when she took over after their mother died. Katara was his little sister, Sokka knew; she was fourteen and needed his protection, no matter how great a waterbender she was. 

But it was times like this that Sokka became acutely aware how much Katara took care of him too, and not just in battle.

Quietly, he said, "Thanks, Katara." 

The terror and guilt remained, and Sokka could hardly imagine what lay before them or how Toph was managing, but at least he knew that Katara would be there.

A few moments later, Aang called out, "We made it," and Appa landed heavily shortly thereafter. Sokka looked around at the expanse of land, which looked as though it used to be a river but had since dried up. There were rocks layering the long stretch of cracked dirt, surrounded by sparse shrubs for about fifty feet in any direction before the forest picked up again.

"Okay," Katara said, immediately taking charge of provisions. "I've put some essential travel and first aid supplies in one pack so we can travel light-"

"I'll take it," Sokka offered immediately, knowing that his style of combat would likely be the least effective against the wraith. Also, he was strongest; if one of them needed to carry Toph, it would probably wind up being him.

"-and Lao Meiying said it would take about twenty minutes to get to the Lost Man's Cave," Katara continued as if he hadn't spoken, though she passed him the pack with a grateful look. "She said to keep to the center of the woods and watch for the giant willow tree by the cave's entrance."

"Sounds good," Aang said. His eyes were black in the dark of the night, staring resolutely out into the woods. He jumped down to the ground and then looked back up at Appa, saying, "You'll have to stay here, buddy, but we'll be back soon. Get ready to fly fast when we do."

Sokka and Katara climbed down after Aang. Without another word, they started into the forest with Sokka in the rear, trusting the other two to find the best path. Aang, if nothing else, could try to feel out the earth if they got lost, even if he wasn't nearly as talented at it as Toph. 

Sokka focused on what they would do once they found Toph, trying to mentally catalogue every item they had in their first aid supplies. He Liwen had been sliced up with her dress torn around her, but had been more or less all right. She hadn't been unconscious or anything, or bleeding too horribly.

He could only hope the same would be true for Toph.

The trees loomed over them with spiny dark shadows, letting scarcely any moonlight shine through. As they progressed deeper through the woods, the light grew fainter, and they were forced to rely on Katara's torchlight more and more. The flickering flame only made the darkness of the forest even more prominent, making every tree a demon and every branch a scaly, grasping hand. Unconsciously, the group grew closer together the further they traveled, avoiding the massive trees and foliage as much as they could.

After a long while, with everyone growing rapidly more apprehensive with each step, Aang suddenly paused. Katara and Sokka had to stop short to avoid running into him, and Sokka whispered a panicked, "What's wrong?"

Aang didn't reply to the shrill accusation, his eyes narrowed as he looked around at the dark forest. He tilted his head quizzically, and then said, "Nothing's making any noise except us."

Katara and Sokka both froze in order to listen themselves. The forest was dead quiet, save for their breathing and the cackling of fire from the torch.

"Wait," Aang said, frowning. He drew himself up as though he was holding his breath, and Sokka and Katara followed suit. For a long moment, the only sound was the fire. Sokka was about to give up on this exercise when he suddenly heard it: a faint gasping just ahead, like someone was trying to catch her breath. 

Sokka's eyes widened as Aang darted forward, clearly hearing the same thing.

They all ran forward, crashing through the woods and breaking up the deafening silence. Not a minute later, they came into a small clearing, and Sokka immediately saw the dark mouth of a cave highlighted in the torchlight. Just to the side of the opening was the tallest willow tree Sokka had ever seen. Its trunk was nearly three times his arm span around, and its long, tangled branches hung over the entire meadow, as though the meadow itself was created for the soul purpose of being under the tree. 

In the daylight, the sight would have been merely dank, perhaps even a bit pretty. But at night, the hanging branches only looked like ropes about to snare, the gaping mouth of the cave an abyss of darkness, and the tree itself was just another monster ready to attack. But all the scenery was unimportant in Sokka's eyes.

The light cast by the torch was just bright enough to see Toph hanging pinned against the tree, thick branches twisted across her chest and legs with vines tying her arms and ankles tight against the trunk. Her clothes hung loosely off her, half torn to shreds, and Sokka could nearly see as much pale skin as he could green cloth. They weren't close enough yet to see her face, but she didn't seem to have noticed them; her chin was tucked into her shoulder, face in shadows, and she didn't move. Sokka felt his breath catch in his throat at the sight, stomach twisting in terror; if they hadn't heard her breathing, he would have been certain she was dead.

"Toph!" Aang cried out, his voice a clanging bell in the silence. They all darted forward as one, caution forgotten in the moment.

Toph jerked in surprise, raising her head with a gasp. As they approached, Sokka saw her wince in pain, and he suddenly realized that the dark streaks on her skin and clothes weren't just shadows: it was blood. Dark red dripped down from where her wrists and ankles were bound tight with vines, and still more blood welled from a mess of deep cuts along her chest and side. Sokka could even see blood smeared across her face, casting a ghastly impression against her pale skin and shrouded eyes.

Sokka arrived at the tree first. Up close, Toph looked less like a corpse, but it also had the effect of giving Sokka full view of her injuries. The cuts were like an animal attack, deep and criss-crossing across her chest, clothes hanging in shreds on her slender frame. He gently touched her face, looking at the blood there to make sure it really was just an imprint, not an actual injury.

"Toph, Toph," he called gently. Her face was shockingly cold, and Sokka rubbed his hands and warmed her cheeks with them. Katara and Aang arrived in short order, and Sokka noticed absently that Katara was adjusting Toph's clothes to cover her better. He kept his hands on her face, feeling the strange urge to whisper in the oppressing woods.

"Toph," he said again, "Are you awake? Are you with me?"

"Sokka," Toph replied quietly, her voice sounding raw and shaky. She swallowed and leaned into his hands, looking relieved. "Please..." she began, and then mumbled something that Sokka couldn't quite catch.

"What?" Sokka asked, leaning forward. He saw a maggot squirming in her hair and brushed it away with a wince of disgust, remembering the way the insects had moved around the wraith.

Her voice was no more than a whisper. "Please _get me out of here_ ," she said, her voice rising in desperation with each word. Sokka's eyes widened at her tone; he had never heard her sound so scared, and he didn't want to think of what the Wild Woman had done to make Toph look so terrified. Injuries aside, Toph was literally shaking under his hands, bare shivers that couldn't all be explained by the cold.

Immediately, Sokka replied, "We're here, Toph, we'll get you out. We can cut down these vines in no time, right Katara?" The last part he directed toward his sister, who had pulled out her water and was actively beginning to heal some of the deeper cuts on Toph's chest.

"See if you two can," Katara commanded without looking up. Her hands moved in gentle circles over Toph's chest, water glinting in the light of the torch that Aang was now holding.

Toph's chest hitched as Katara began to heal her, and Sokka looked back to see her with her eyes screwed shut, lips pulled back in a grimace. It took a moment for him to realize that she was trying not to cry, and a little while more to understand that it wasn't just due to pain. 

"I can cut you out easy," Sokka told her, ignoring the tears that were leaking out the side of her closed eyes. He pulled out his boomerang and braced himself up against Toph, aiming for the nearest vine. It severed fractionally under the sharp edge of his weapon, and though it took a few more swings to get it, it snapped. 

"Gotcha, you little bastard!" he cheered, mostly for Toph's benefit. She smiled faintly at him, eyes still shut tight.

Unfortunately, just as he began to chop the next nearest vine, the air grew frigid. They all froze in their efforts, watching with growing dread as the grass around them began to turn white with frost.

"Dammit," Toph cursed weakly, sounding defeated. Sokka hated the way she sunk back against the tree, looking even smaller than before. Setting his jaw resolutely, he ignored the growing chill and kept slicing away at the vine. The second one snapped under his efforts, and he moved onto the third without pause.

However, just as he raised his arm to strike, a strange energy seemed to run through the vines, causing them to all snap back even tighter against the tree. Toph shrieked from the sudden tightening of the vines. Sokka glowered at the plants and began chopping at them with renewed effort, but something had changed. The vines were barely getting dinged under his blade, as though they were somehow immune to the sharp metal. 

With a disturbing ripple, the tree branches abruptly shifted around Toph and threw Sokka and Katara away from her, with the latter ramming into Aang and sending both crashing to the ground. The torch flew out of Aang's hand and flickered weakly on the icy grass. Toph, still pinned against the tree, cried out again as the tree branches tightened around her, covering most of her torso in thick bark. Her breathing started to become shallower, as though she couldn't get enough air.

Aang leapt to his feet with a snarl, snatching up the torch in one fist as he did so. "SHOW YOURSELF!" he shouted, sounding furious. Sokka noticed with wide eyes the way the grass began to flatten around him, and saw the hair around Katara's face begin to rise up.

Nothing happened for a long moment, but just as Aang was beginning to shout again, the Wild Woman suddenly appeared from inside the cave, her pale glow illuminating a large part of the meadow. She seemed larger here, as though the proximity to her death place was enough to grant her more strength. Her cold black eyes were locked on Aang as she stepped forward, teeth bared in her deep scowl.

"Take the torch," Aang snapped at Sokka, who jumped forward immediately to take it. The young man's clothing was nearly floating around him, and as Sokka drew near, he could feel the beginning of a whirlwind surrounding the Avatar. Aang gave Sokka a sidelong look and instructed, "Get Toph out of here. I'll take care of _her_."

Sokka nodded, whirling away and pulling Katara along with him. She instantly summoned her water up again and stepped up to Toph alongside Sokka, who held his boomerang at the ready. Aang turned away from both of them and faced the Wild Woman, who was growing ever closer.

It was time to end this.


	4. PART FOUR

** PART 4 **

 

In the moment before the battle, Aang could barely think straight.

He had never liked for his friends to be used against him. When Katara's life had been threatened in order to force him into the Avatar state, his anger and fear for her had forced him into an unthinking rage, and he knew he would have destroyed a great deal if he hadn't been stopped. Since then, Aang had tried his best to keep his head as level as possible, not wanting to be sent on such a destructive path again.

But now, with the image of Toph's battered body fresh in his mind and the wraith that caused it standing before him, Aang was again on the brink of rage. 

And just like before, he felt drunk with anger. He knew logically he shouldn't go to the Avatar state because he couldn't control it, but such rationale was only barely outweighing his intense desire to let go and make her pay.

"You will leave her alone," Aang commanded sharply, whipping his staff out in front of him in a sparring stance. He knew that a physical attack would have no lasting effect on the wraith, but the motion of swinging the staff locked him more solidly in his stance, his heels digging into the ground. The air whirled around him as he spoke, a warning sign of his own turbulent emotions, but Aang didn't bother to will it to stop. 

Let the wind blow. Let his anger give him strength. The wraith hadn't listened to him before, and Aang highly doubted at this point talking peace would do anything.

True to his expectations, the Wild Woman didn't react to his command except to scowl even deeper, snarling, "You are the one who will kill her."

"Let her go!" Aang shouted in response. Two people could play at this game; if she wasn't going to acknowledge his words, Aang saw no reason to do otherwise.

"My maiden will nourish me," the Wild Woman continued coldly, gliding forward as she spoke. "I won't let you take her, I won't let you, you horrible man, I won't let you use her, I won't let you _kill_ her, she is mine, _she is mine_!" 

With her last shout, the Wild Woman unleashed a spiritual blow at Aang. Had he not braced himself against the earth, it might have knocked him over, but as it was, it simply pushed him back.

It wasn't meant to attack him or hurt him, Aang realized suddenly.

It was meant to _scare_ him.

For the first time in facing the wraith, Aang felt himself respond to her foul smirk with a smug one of his own.

"You can't hurt me, can you?" Aang asked. The Wild Woman paused in her advance and tilted her head slightly, baring her teeth defensively. He took a step toward her, returning her glower, and said, "That's just it! I'm a man. I'm a disgusting, foul, horrible man, but you can't touch me. Men killed you in life, and I'm betting that means that you're still powerless against us, doesn't it? _That's_ why you only attack women!"

With his proclamation, the Wild Woman seemed to grow with indignation, the maggots and flies around her swooping and squirming with fervor. She hissed, "You have no power over me!" Her bloody hands curled into fists, thin shoulders tensing underneath her torn dress. "I protect my maidens, I _keep_ them; you do nothing more than destroy them, hurt them, kill them-"

" _You_ kill them!" Aang shouted back, feeling the pride in his discovery vanishing under a wave of anger again. "You hurt them! But not anymore! It ends NOW!"

On the last word, Aang reared up and made a swift swipe of his staff. It was the same gesture as before, but this time he concentrated on the staff and tried to imbue it with some of his spirit energy. He wasn't sure exactly how to do it, but he had been to the spirit world enough times to know the feeling of the energy coursing through his veins, and was satisfied as he felt the power flowing out through his hands. As his staff struck the Wild Woman's form, he could feel the wood shaking with power.

The wraith vanished in a haze of fog, taking with her the chill.

Aang froze in a kneeling position, waiting for any sign that she was still present. From behind him, he heard a sharp thunk, and Sokka shouted, "Got it!" Aang turned to see Sokka braced against the trunk of the tree, hacking at the vines that still bound Toph.

"I can cut again!" Sokka cheered, his smile malicious as he again struck at the plants. Another vine snapped under his actions, and Toph slumped down on one side, one arm falling limply to land on the tree branch that still pinned her painfully against the tree. Toph didn't seem to notice the change in position; her eyes were shut tightly and her face was pink as she struggled to breathe against the tight grasp of the branches.

Aang stepped toward them just as Katara noticed Toph's wrist. "Oh," she gasped, eyes going wide, and Aang was just close enough to see what had startled her. Toph's free wrist was drenched in blood, and Aang realized the sudden release of the vine had also removed the pressure blocking the blood flow.

"Oh, no, no," Katara muttered faintly, water already rushing around the wound and plugging up the blood. "Sokka, hold on a second," she instructed hurriedly as she examined the wrist in her grasp, a frantic tone to her voice. "If I don't get this closed up, she's going to bleed out, and I can't do both at the same time."

Sokka paused immediately, looking down at the injury. Aang could see his face grow dark at the sight of it, his jaw setting in anger. But he didn't say anything to signify his feelings; instead, he leaned down to Toph and gripped her free shoulder firmly, saying, "Hey, don't worry, Katara's gonna just heal that up and I'll get the other one free right away. We gotcha."

Toph managed a nod in response, her breathing still shallow against the pressure of the tree, but otherwise showed no reaction to the situation. Aang went to the base of the trunk, raising a hand to offer his friend and teacher support, even if he could do nothing else at this point, but was stopped short by the sudden stench of rot.

Before he was able to turn and face the wraith, a fierce gust of wind shot through the meadow. Aang toppled half across the open air before he was able to brace himself against the ground, and as he looked up, he saw Sokka on his back on the other side. Katara, being closest to Toph, had only just managed to grab hold of the tree, and even as the wind died down she was steadfastly healing Toph again.

Aang barely sat up before the Wild Woman was suddenly upon him, her stench overpowering as her cold black eyes bore into his. Even though he knew she couldn't hurt him— couldn't touch him, even, he realized as she leaned over him—,Aang couldn't shake the terror that seemed to paralyze him. Frigid air radiated off the wraith's flickering form in waves, and now that he was close enough, he could see how her skin was rotted and peeling away from her bones, infested thoroughly with vermin. Aang gagged reflexively, twisting away from the disturbing presence, but she would not relent.

Instead, she leaned closer to him, practically pinning him under her against the ground. Aang could feel himself freezing to the ground as the grass froze and snapped around him. The Wild Woman no longer looked cruelly amused or vengeful; rather, her face was twisted with hate and rage as she hissed at him, "I am done with this game, you foul man, I am _finished_. Your maiden," she sharply, and flung out a hand to gesture at the still bound Toph, "is MINE!"

Aang could see Toph and Katara just past the Wild Woman's flickering form, and so was able to watch in horror at the events that followed. As before, the tree shuddered around Toph and knocked Katara to the ground, but this time, it didn't just stop at twisting itself more securely around the smaller girl. Vines like the ones that tied her arms and legs shot out from behind the tree and wrapped around Toph's neck, yanking her head sharply back against the trunk of the tree. 

Toph gave a startled gasp and reached her half-healed hand up to tug against the restrictive presence, but she couldn't do more than dig her fingernails at it frantically. No more sound passed through her lips as she squirmed as much as she could against her bindings, her face turning rapidly red with lack of air.

Katara shrieked and Sokka yelled in outrage, both jumping up immediately to do whatever they could to stop the choking, but Aang scarcely noticed their heroic efforts. It was as though a light had been switched on in his mind, and suddenly he was no longer fighting against the anger present in his mind: he _was_ the anger, he _was_ the rage, he was the frustration and guilt and pain. He didn't even realize what was happening until he blinked and suddenly saw a blue glow shining around him.

The Wild Woman's eyes went wide with shock, and for the first time, Aang could almost see how she must have looked as a living girl, before she had been corrupted by rage. But it was far too late for that image to have any effect on him.

Aang snarled at the wraith, " _You will not take my friend from me_!"

The Wild Woman abruptly flickered back, her movements more jerky than before as she moved away from him. He advanced on her quickly and grabbed one of her ice-cold arms. He noted absently that he was suddenly able to touch her form, which he hadn't been able to before. Aang supposed it made sense, as he was both spirit and man in the Avatar state, but he only noticed it in passing. Vague thoughts were the limit of what he as Aang could do when the Avatar was in control.

"Avatar," the Wild Woman murmured with a low moan, trying and failing to pull away from him. What she had not recognized in Aang before was suddenly clear, now that they were both in spirit form. Aang could feel each of their respective powers, and similarly could feel her subsiding instinctually to him. The Avatar was dominant in the spirit world as the link between the two worlds; as a spirit who resided unnaturally in the physical world, the Wild Woman had to feel his dominating presence.

Even as Aang was pinning the Wild Woman's dissolving arms against her sides, he could somehow dually see Sokka and Katara trying futilely to cut the vines away from Toph. It made no difference; as Aang was watching, he saw Toph slowly slump against the tree, her limbs limp. Her lips were tinged blue, contrasting sharply with her white-pale face. Something inside Aang snapped, and the Avatar abruptly bared his teeth at the helpless wraith in his grasp.

"You," the Avatar snarled harshly to the Wild Woman, "are BANISHED."

With these words, the Avatar suddenly felt a power rush through him. It was like an electric current that flowed through his arms into the Wild Woman, whose eyes went wide as she felt the spiritual commandment taking hold of her form. As she felt the power beginning to rip apart her form, she began to twist and shake in his arms, her features contorting foully on her face. The Avatar could feel her limbs beginning to dissolve, his grip growing less solid against her arms, and clearly the Wild Woman could as well.

She was bucking horribly in his grip, her eyes wild with panic, but just as she was fading fast, she went still and pinned him with a hate-filled glare.

"I will _never_ let a man beat me," she hissed darkly as her face began to twist and dissolve.

Then the banishment took full effect and the wraith vanished with a terrible shrieking sound, her icy form disappearing from his grasp. The Avatar stood alone.

Then, as soon as it had come upon him, the Avatar was gone, and Aang was left to fall to the ground, the world growing dark with exhaustion around him.

 

 

\--

 

 

Katara didn't need to hear Aang battling or see the bright glow from the Avatar's form to know that the Wild Woman was banished. The instant the wraith vanished with a shriek, the vines underneath Katara's hands suddenly responded to her desperate tugging. With a sharp slice of one water-covered hand, Katara cut through the tough plant that was still wrapped around Toph's neck. The girl slumped against her, unmoving, and Katara could hardly think through a constant litany running through her mind, whispering _oh no she's dead she's dead she's not breathing she's DEAD_ in a horrible round.

But Katara was not going to be deterred by negative thoughts, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let one of her friends be taken away by some vengeful spirit.

Katara yanked the remaining vine off Toph's neck with one hand and placed the other on her neck. Immediately, she sought out the feeling of swelling in Toph's throat, working as fast as she could to will Toph to breath. Along with the healing, Katara balled her free hand into a fist, and aimed. Even as she heard Sokka suddenly start behind her with a yelp, Katara slammed her fist down on Toph's chest with a resounding thump.

"What are you doing?" Sokka yelled, not two feet from her ear. Katara ignored him, hoping that he would let his logic outweigh his confusion and wouldn't try to pull her away. She kept her healing hand on Toph's neck, water moving and swirling around and under the battered skin, and knew that Toph should be breathing. Her throat was healed enough, but her body didn't seem to realize that. Instead of sensing the air around her and breathing, Toph stayed lifeless in the tree's grasp. Katara couldn't bear to look at the ashen pallor of Toph's face, smeared with blood and tinted blue enough to see even in the dim light of the torch.

"No!" Katara shouted, striking down with her fist once more. She was not going to let this be the last way she ever saw Toph, cold and beaten and pale. That was not Toph, and Katara was not going to let her get away with it. Dealing with this was just like dealing with anything else Toph ever did: she was stubborn and rebellious and refused to listen, but with enough conviction, Katara could get through to her. And she was going to.

Toph's body jerked underneath the second blow, and Katara was pained with relief to see her finally suck in a gasping breath. Sokka was suddenly right beside her, rough hands cupping Toph's face and holding up her head to help ease the process, which was necessary as Katara noted that Toph was still both unconscious and pinned up against the tree.

Katara could feel herself shaking with exhaustion, sweat dripping down the back of her neck, and she took a quick moment to take in a slow breath. She noticed her hands shaking, water quivering around them, and knew that she was wearing herself out too quickly with all the healing. But though she had healed one of Toph's wrists well enough to make it back to the village, there was still one more bound tightly above Toph's head, and Katara didn't know how badly her ankles were cut. 

As she took a moment to catch her breath, Katara scanned her younger friend's body to make sure that the wrist was the only pressing concern. Something tugged at her memory as she thought of healing Toph's neck, something that had felt off, but Katara couldn't place it, and the thought of Toph bleeding out from the sliced up wrist distracted Katara from that train of thought.

"Sokka," Katara said quietly, calling his attention away from trying to wake Toph up. She stepped up to the tree and gestured to the vines. Her hand shook with the movement and she curled it against her chest immediately, not wanting her brother to see. 

"I need you to cut her other wrist down so I can heal it. Is your boomerang sharp enough to cut away the branches?" Katara said, nodding toward Toph, who was still only breathing shallowly. "She can't get enough air with them pressing against her like that."

Sokka nodded, and without a word whipped his boomerang around to slice through the vines still pinning Toph to the tree. It took a few whacks, but soon Toph slumped heavily against Katara, her bloody wrist scarcely having time to begin bleeding heavily before Katara was surrounding it with water. 

As Katara healed, she could hear Sokka trying to break the branches surrounding Toph and cursing as it didn't have much of an effect. He left for a long moment, during which Katara focused on her healing with intensity. She was grateful they hadn't cut down this wrist first, or even the few moments of surprised hesitation that the first wrist had created might have been enough time for Toph to bleed out. As it was, the healing was a tricky, finicky process, and Katara was so focused that she didn't even realize that there was water slicing through the branches until they fell away and she was completely holding Toph.

Katara looked up in surprise, automatically curling around Toph to grip her more securely, and saw Aang standing there with a water whip swirling away from his hands. Behind him Sokka stood with the torch in hand.

"Her wrist is fine," Katara said, pulling the water away from the joint as she said so. Both of Toph's wrists were raw, and the previous one was still bleeding lightly from some remaining cuts, but they weren’t in danger of severing anymore. Toph's other cuts looked vicious, but weren’t life-threatening, so long as they could get her back to the village in time to properly clean them out. Even the sharp cuts around her ankles from the vines were manageable. Katara could feel Toph taking deep breaths against her, skin still cold but warming up against Katara's body. Katara shifted her position enough to lie Toph on the ground and began to stand up, saying, "If we just—"

But before she could finish, Katara felt a rush of vertigo hit her and she swayed, stumbling a few steps to the side. Immediately, Aang was at her side, a firm hand on both her elbow and her back, and he was saying, "Katara? Are you all right? What happened?"

"I—," Katara began, blinking and trying to regain her stability. She steadied herself against his grasp and took a deep breath, recognizing the feeling. "It's just the healing," she explained quickly, waving away his concern. Sokka was kneeling on the ground next to Toph, digging through the pack while staring up at Katara with a frown.

"I used too much healing in a short time," she reiterated. "I just got lightheaded, that's all." Then, before Aang could protest, she took charge again, instructing, "We have to get Toph to a healer. She's been hurt and left out in the cold, and if infection sets in, it could be really bad."

"She's okay for now, though, right?" Sokka asked from beside the still girl, pulling out a thick blanket from the pack and moving to wrap it around her.

"She should be," Katara replied slowly, eyeing the first aid supplies in the pack with a keen eye. She considered the matter, but said, "I think our best option is to get back to the village as quickly as possible."

"It shouldn't take too long," Aang said, kneeling down on the other side of Toph and tucking the blanket around her bare legs.

Sokka nodded and leaned down to scoop up Toph, but just as he had wrapped his arms around her shoulders the small girl gasped and jerked against his grasp. There was a brief moment of shocked stillness before she shrieked and kicked her legs away from the blanket. The instant her foot made contact with the earth, both Sokka and Aang were flung away from her sharply, landing heavily roughly ten feet away.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, clutching her arms around her chest defensively and shivering. She was breathing loudly, her eyes wide and sightless, and Katara could see her wincing in pain as she tried to twist her ankle deeper into the dirt and was met with the sharp ache of her cuts.

"Toph," Katara said softly, stepping forward with tiny steps, trying not to scare her friend. "It's just us. We got rid of the wraith."

Toph didn't seem to hear her at first, her face showing no reaction to Katara's words. She shifted in the blanket, twisting her fists around the edges and taking a few long, deep breaths. Katara was about to say something else when she saw Toph nod slightly, reaching one shaking hand out to touch the ground.

Abruptly, the ground under Sokka and Aang shifted and pulled them back toward Toph. They were both sitting up and looked mildly startled.

"Sorry," Toph said quietly, her voice toneless. She added, "I thought you were-"

"Don't worry, Toph, we're not the Wild Woman, it's fine," Aang said quickly, grabbing the blanket and moving it to cover Toph again, though he made sure not to try to move her planted foot. Blood was dripping down from the sliced ankle and pooling in the dirt. Sokka gently put his hand on her shoulders and moved to pull the blanket around her.

In this way, it was only Katara who saw Toph's face grow confused at Aang's response, and then shift to mild panic as Sokka touched her. "No," she said, her voice faint and wavering. "No, that's not... I mean, I-" 

She shuddered under Sokka's grasp, tucking her head down into her chest and finishing weakly, "I don't know."

Katara frowned and stepped forward, kneeling in front of the group and examining Toph with a healer's eye. She still felt worn out from the rapid healing, but if something else was wrong with Toph— maybe a head injury that they had missed— then she wasn't about to let it go unchecked. In fact, now that she was leaning forward, she could see a strange flush on Toph's face.

"Hey, hold up," she instructed Sokka, who had been moving to lift Toph up again. Katara reached a hand out to place on Toph's cheeks, and noted with a frown that her face was definitely warm. Pulling some of her traveling water out from its container yet again— and forcefully ignoring the pang of protest from her exhausted body— she placed her hand just over Toph's collarbone, letting the water run a scan on the girl's body.

The obvious injuries lit up immediately in her mind, letting Katara confirm that the vine burns around her ankles were still only moderate, but it took a little while longer for her to discern the cause of Toph's growing fever. As soon as she figured it out, Katara gasped and rocked back, pulling her hand away sharply and jumping to her feet.

"Oh, no, no, no," she muttered rapidly, looking around for the offending presence she knew was there.

"What?" Aang said, panicked. "What's wrong?"

"What's going on?" Sokka echoed. He pulled Toph closer to him, though he didn't move to lift her off the ground now that Katara was searching around in the grass. He asked Toph, "What's wrong, Toph?"

"I don't..." Toph began, still speaking with a dazed lilt to her voice. She trailed off a bit before finishing, "My head feels weird."

"Your head?" Aang asked, his voice breaking in his worry. "What's wrong with your head? Katara, what's wrong with her head?"

"This is not good," Katara said, ignoring the boys' concerns in favor of her quest. It only took a few moments for her to find the object of her search, and she snatched it up with a growing pit in her stomach.

"That _bitch_ ," she cursed without thinking, feeling the frustration from the entire evening welling up in her tone.

There were a few beats of silence as Sokka and Aang stared at her, apparently startled by her choice of words.

Toph, looking confused, just asked, "What bitch?" 

(No one batted an eye at her language, which, _okay_.)

"The Wild Woman. See, look at the vine," Katara told them, holding out the vine that had been wrapped around Toph's neck. On the underside of the plant were multiple thin thorns, each a deep purple in color and some still stained red with blood. "The one that she choked you with, Toph— I didn't notice right away because I healed your neck, but you were pricked by the thorns."

"And?" Sokka asked. His tone sounded like he already knew where this was going.

"It's poison," Katara confirmed with a heavy heart, staring down at the girl slumped against Sokka. Toph was clearly paying attention, enough that she looked dismayed by the news, but with every passing moment she seemed more sluggish and disoriented.

"Poison?" repeated Aang with a horrified expression. He jumped to his feet, fists clenching at his sides and cried out, "That's what she meant!"

"What she meant?" Katara repeated, looking at Aang in confusion.

"The Wild Woman," Aang explained quietly, clearly upset. "She said something about never letting a man beat her, and I—," he cut off, looking down at the ground with his face twisted in a guilty expression. "I didn't understand what she meant, _again_ , I didn't even think—"

"So," Toph interrupted sharply, interrupting Aang’s growing guilt trip. Her expression was blank as she asked, "I'm poisoned now?" 

"It's pretty bad," Katara admitted, "but we should be able to find medicine in the village."

"Oh. Okay, then," Toph said, signing and leaning closer to Sokka, utterly exhausted. "Just to throw out there," she added, already sounding weaker, "Today _really_ sucks."

Katara was glad that Toph couldn't see the sharp wince of guilt that struck both boys' expressions at her statement, and she resisted the urge to call attention to it. It wouldn’t help anything right now, no matter how much they wanted to blame themselves. 

As it stood, Katara knew that she had to take charge, even if her hands were still shaking from all the healing she had just done. She grabbed the torch from Aang's hand, saying, "Come on. We have to get to the village as soon as possible. The poison is pretty strong, and I don't know how well I'm going to be able to keep it at bay. It's not like an injury that I can heal away, and the longer we wait the more we have to worry about Toph's cuts getting infected too."

Everyone began to move at her instruction, with Sokka and Aang helping a disgruntled-looking Toph to her feet. When he was sure that she was stable, Aang stepped aside to reassemble the pack that Sokka had opened, throwing it on his own back without a second thought. 

They hit a snag when Sokka tried to scoop Toph up, as the younger girl resolutely resisted it.

"Toph," Katara said, waiting anxiously to start back. "You're hurt. Just let Sokka help."

"I'm fine," Toph said.

"Toph-" she began again.

"I can walk, Katara!" Toph snapped, her shoulders tensing. It was annoying to fight with her, but Katara was still relieved to see that Toph's stubbornness hadn't been completely wiped out by her ordeal. After a short pause and looking a little uncertain, Toph quietly added, "I want to be able to see where I'm going."

Understanding dawning, Katara paused, then simply said, "Okay, everyone, let's move out then."

Toph hugged herself closer in the heavy wool blanket and obligingly let Sokka keep a steadying hand on her shoulder. Katara kept an eye on the her ankles, noting the dark lines of red that still dripped on the dirt with every step, but she wasn't about to force Toph to be blind again.

The way was even slower than it had been getting there. For all that Toph was able to sense solid paths with her earthbending, she clearly lacked the energy to move enough earth to effectively clear a path. Aang and Katara led the way with Katara holding the torch aloft while Aang scouted out a clear way. Sokka matched pace with Toph and silently kept a hand on her back at first, and then as the young girl began to waver more regularly, put his arm solidly around her. 

More than anything else, exhaustion hung over the group like a shroud. Katara had overworked herself with waterbending, and the Avatar state always wiped Aang out. Sokka was comparatively fresher, but with every passing minute, Toph's steps grew shakier and shakier.

Finally, Toph stumbled over a tree branch and fell to her knees, breathing heavily. She didn't get up, instead kneeling over the ground with her shoulders shaking, even as Sokka knelt down beside her and tried to help her up. Katara leaned forward to examine her and found her face coated with sweat and flushed red.

"Toph," she murmured gently.

"I know," Toph muttered back, and it was a testament to exhausted she was that she barely sounded upset. "Sokka?" was all she needed to say before Sokka shifted around in front of her and helped her climb onto his back. A few adjustments later, Toph was slumped against him with her arms wrapped loosely around his neck, head lolling against his broad shoulder. She closed her eyes.

"Let's hurry," Aang said quietly, watching the exchange with worry in his eyes. They continued without further discussion, going a little quicker now that Sokka was able to take longer steps.

"Can you...?" Aang whispered to Katara, who was trying to light the way ahead and still give Sokka enough light to see. She turned to look at him, curious, as he continued, "Is there any way you could keep healing Toph or something? With waterbending?" He gave her a pained smile, adding quickly, "She's getting worse so fast, and I know that you can't heal the poison, but..."

Katara swallowed any annoyance she might have felt at the sincere look of pleading in his eyes. Quietly, she explained, "It won't help enough." She looked back at Toph, worry deepening at the dark flush on her cheeks. 

She continued, "It won't give her enough of a break to make a difference, and besides," Katara admitted, holding out her free hand so that Aang could see it quivering, "I'm beat. It feels like I've been running sprints for an hour. I don't even know how much healing I could give her."

"Oh," Aang replied, looking even more worried at this admission, though now he was watching her as well. He turned forward once again, his jaw setting resolutely. "We're almost there," he confirmed unnecessarily.

Not too long later, they stepped out of the thick forest to see the dried-out river and the surrounding valley cast in moonlight. Katara heaved a sigh of relief at the sight, only to be taken aback by a dark realization.

"Where is Appa?" Aang asked, having noticed the same thing.

"What?" Sokka asked from behind them, just inside the forest with Toph on his back, sounding horrified by the idea.

"Appa's gone!" Katara said, whirling around to examine the darker ends of the valley. She cast the torchlight about but could not see the large air-bison anywhere. "Appa!" she called out.

"Appa!" Aang echoed, and dug in his tunic hurriedly to take out his whistle, blowing on it as soon as he found it. There was a moment of silence, and then from a short distance away, a distressed roar came. Aang's eyes went wide, recognizing the sound. "Appa!"

"I'm afraid your pet isn't going to be helping you this time, Avatar," a cold, amused voice said loudly, and the entire group turned away from the sound of Appa to stare at the opposite end of the valley. There, seated on a large rock, were the shadowed forms of the fire warrior Azula and her two friends.

Azula smirked at their shocked expressions and gloated, "Did you really think we wouldn't find you again after that merry chase?" She jumped down from the rock, followed by her lackeys, and said, "I think it's time to end this game."

Katara watched them approach in horror. Somehow, their situation had turned from bad to immensely worse.


	5. CHAPTER FIVE

** PART 5 **

 

Her head felt too heavy to move from Sokka's shoulder, but Toph gave a start the same as everyone else when she heard the cold voice of the Fire Princess Azula. She gripped around his neck tightly, hardly able to register what this meant. Toph knew she should be doing something - _make the earth swallow them up, make the land shake_ \- but her thoughts were swimming around in her head, unable to find solid ground.

"How the hell did they find us?" Sokka muttered, his breath blowing past her right ear. He was moving slowly backward, pinning her legs to his side with a tight grip. His cheek was cool against her hot face, and Toph leaned against it instinctively, feeling a sudden pang of affection for the man anchoring her down as she began to feel hot and shaky.

"She's good," Toph said without thinking about it, and then latched onto the thought of their three enemies. She moved with a sudden desire to touch the earth, to start the fight, _to bend them beneath the deep, deep earth and make them stop, make them go away,_ and struggled against Sokka's firm grip on her legs.

"Lemme go," she whined, hating the way it came out more like a whimper than a command. She pushed away from his shoulders in a burst of energy, but couldn't manage to hold herself up more than a few seconds before slumping down again. She shivered in the heat, and wasn't listening as Sokka said-

"Stop fighting me, Toph, you have to be quiet!" He was hissing the words, and Azula's laughing voice was moving away in slow, steady steps.

-and Toph wondered why she had been fighting him, she wouldn't fight him, he was Sokka, she liked Sokka. He was funny, and even when Katara and Aang had yelled at her before, he hadn't gotten mad. He tried to make her stay with the group when Azula and her fighters had been chasing them all night, and hadn't she warned them? 

She always warned them.

"I'm sorry you can't sleep, Sokka," she apologized suddenly, remembering. "They're gonna catch us, we can't sleep anymore, they're gonna find us-"

"Shh, Toph, it's okay, I don't care," he said back, and Toph felt herself being moved from his broad back. A few dazed moments passed, and suddenly she was pressed against his chest, her face tucked just under his chin. She could tell by the way his neck felt, half rough with stubble, and Aang didn't have hair on his chin yet, so it had to be Sokka. He wrapped long arms around her, securing her against himself, and his breath was hot against her ear as he whispered, "Just keep quiet, Toph, Katara and Aang are going to fight, but you and I need to stay quiet, okay?"

Distantly, Toph heard the sudden clash of water against fire, and a burst of wind stirred the hair around her face. She shifted uncomfortably against Sokka's grip, feeling hot and small and scared, and couldn't shake the need to use the earth, to cover up in cold dark mud and hide, _hide away from the dragons chasing them round and round the world and—_

"We'll be fine," Sokka murmured. "Just stay still, we'll be fine."

_She imagined him riding a dragon, waving a sword fearlessly against the hot sun, and thought anxiously, he has to stop before it burns him up. Burns him up, and her along with him, both turning to ashes and falling to the earth below._

 

 

\--

 

 

Toph was muttering nonsense against him, her body hot against his chest, and Sokka clung tighter to her small form as she began to move restlessly. He had hidden just behind one of the nearby trees, feeling both cowardly and intelligent at the same time. He couldn't leave Toph by herself, not with her injuries and a fever that was quickly turning into delirium. And to stay in sight would be to invite an attack, but Sokka couldn't help but feel helpless at the sight of Katara and Aang facing off against the three enemy warriors. 

They were outmatched. Sokka could see the way Katara's shoulders were slumped, and how Aang bent forward a little too much in his fighting stance. They were tired and they needed help, but every time that thought crossed Sokka's mind, he felt the heavy weight of Toph curled against him, limbs limp and completely defenseless against any sort of attack.

Sokka knew he couldn't do anything, but it didn't make it any easier to crouch behind the tree and watch as Aang and Katara leapt into action without him.

"The dragon's gonna fall," Toph said, dry lips brushing across his collarbone. "Sokka, Sokka, you need to jump, you need to run from the fire - the sun's on fire, Sokka, you shouldn't fight the sun-"

"It's okay, Toph," he reassured her, eyes locked on the beginning battle even as he clung to the feverish girl. The moonlight highlighted everyone's form, and he stared hopelessly as fire burned and daggers glinted in its glow. "We'll be just fine, just stay quiet," he whispered again.

She shivered in his grasp, and Sokka closed his eyes as he heard the loud crash of the first blow, echoing in the desolate land like thunder. The night was cold and dark, filled with enemies and threats, and dread filled his mind. It felt like they were never going to get out of the horrible forest.

 

 

\--

 

 

Azula attacked first, whipping a string of fire straight at Aang's head. Katara responded as Aang darted away instinctively by blocking it with her own water whip, essentially fizzling both weapons out. She kept her eyes focused on Azula, whose hands were already being surrounding by hot blue fire. In the moonlight, the fire was painfully bright; Katara could hardly bear to look directly at the sight, which forced her to move sideways as she struck out with her bending, trying to get a hit while still not using the full force of the water.

She didn't like fighting like this. For air and fire, maybe, evasive tactics worked well, but Katara had always used water as a direct attack. It was flexible, definitely, bested perhaps only by air in its maneuverability, but water smothered you, swallowed you, swept you up— it was not a subtle element. And Katara was not a subtle fighter.

But she had to keep Azula focused. As she darted away from another burning streak of fire, Katara caught a glimpse of Sokka crouched behind a tall oak tree, watching her with wide, furious eyes. He held Toph in his arms like a ragdoll, clutching her close as he stayed still and hidden in the woods. Katara knew how much hiding had to be bothering him, but Sokka wasn't stupid. And Katara wasn't about to make him reveal himself and Toph to the trio of ruthless girls.

She spun away from a whirlwind of flame and ran away from the line of trees, heading for the dried out river. It was strategic, in a sense— the river might be dried out now, but Katara was already reaching out her senses to see if any underground reservoirs of water remained— but mainly she was doing anything she could to get Azula away from the forest.

"I'm getting tired of chasing you, peasant!" Azula shouted after her. A wave of fire forced her to dive behind an outcropping of rock, rolling painfully on the cracked dirt. Her shoulder cried out in protest as it collided with the side of the rock.

Katara winced, but didn't dare stop to examine her injuries. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she continued to run, aiming for the far side of the old river where she could feel unused water just beneath the surface, waiting to be freed. Azula was quick, but Katara was driven by desperation and had always been the fastest in her village, so she was beginning to gain some distance.

Out of nowhere, she felt a sharp pain in her arm and nearly toppled over from a sudden yank on her tunic. She skidded awkwardly on the dry land and could just barely make out a sharp little dagger glinting in the moonlight.

_Oh right_ , she remembered vaguely. _There are three of them_. Apparently the crazy weapons girl was also after her. While part of Katara was mildly gratified at the recognition of her abilities, the sane remainder of her mind was just horrified by the concept of having to fight two of them. She barely had enough energy to deal with Azula alone.

She scrambled across the way, using various rocks to block any direct attacks, but it was still only by virtue of luck that she managed to make it to the other side of the river. Here, she planted her feet on the ground and whipped around to face her opponents. Azula was leaping from a nearby rock as she did so, with her dagger-flinging cohort running on the ground underneath her, and Katara thought—

_Perfect._

— and pulled the water from beneath their feet to strike up at them in sharp spikes of ice. The girl on the ground was tangled up instantly, though she noticed the change faster than expected and darted away, saving herself from a worse injury. 

Azula, trapped without bearing in the air, was not as lucky; the icicles caught her in the midsection and sent her spinning with a shriek of pain. Her fire flickered out harmlessly in the air as she landing heavily on the other side of the valley.

Katara didn't bother to check on her status. She took a moment to breathe, but her heart rate had not slowed at all when she sensed movement behind her. Ducking on instinct, Katara’s heart sank as she saw a pair of daggers sticking out of the thick dirt on the bank of the old river, right where her chest had been. Clearly, the weapons-girl hadn't been too sorely affected by the ice attack.

Katara reached a hand out as she started running again, angling toward the dim image of Aang fighting with the third warrior. With Azula momentarily out of the picture, the two of them combined might be able to take out the non-bending pair in time to double team the fire-bender.

She whipped a stream of water at the fighter chasing after her, knocking daggers out of the air as she did, and ran.

 

 

\--

 

 

The dragon was gone and Sokka was floating

"You're flying," Toph said curiously, and reached out a hand, but he wasn't there. But there was a cackle, a hiss, and she was gripped with the knowledge that the Wild Woman was back, even though all she could smell was burnt wood and-

But Sokka wasn't gone. She could still smell him, still feel his arms around her, and she couldn't smell rot or death, and the Wild Woman always smelled of those things.

A sharp sound cut through the air, a crack of ice and—

— there were hands holding her down, like the men in the forest, and Toph shrieked, but her voice was muffled by a heavy cloth, muffled by the thick, callused hands that kept touching her, kept hurting her, and she squirmed away, crying out—

_"Toph, stop, stop, you're safe, Toph, just stop struggling," a voice commanded above her, and Toph reached her arms up to cling to the man. His chest was solid beneath her, and his skin was smooth against hers, and she thought—_

"Dad, I had a nightmare," Toph whispered, and suddenly she was five and there was no earth, no sight, only the darkness and the protective grasp of her father's arms. She whimpered, "Daddy, make the monsters go away, Daddy-"

The sun was back, and now it looked like a dragon.

_"It's Sokka, Toph," the man said, sounding pained. "It's Sokka, I've got you, you're okay."_

The dragon was hot with fire as it slithered through the dirt, and Sokka was back, standing motionless in the woods as the dragon got closer and closer, and he wasn't watching-

_"The dragon's coming," Toph said with a hushed voice. "Sokka, it's coming, it's coming, you need to run—"_

_"There's no dragon, Toph," Sokka said, arms solid around her. "We need to keep quiet."_

—but the dragon was flying now and flames surrounded it— Toph could feel the heat pulsing under her skin, and curled up as tight as she could, but it kept coming closer—

 

 

\--

 

 

Aang was having some success against his opponent, mainly because she wasn't a bender and relied on getting close enough to her foe in order to win. Not only was Aang a bender of multiple elements— well, two, now, but that was one more than everyone else— but he was also naturally an airbender. 

And airbenders, above all else, were excellent at dodging. He might not be the best at facing his challenges head on and staying stubborn as a rock against direct attacks, but he could dodge and weave with the best of them.

And against the flexible Fire Nation fighter, Aang was pleased to note that his natural defense was working.

"Oh, come on," she whined as he jumped away from her yet again, sounding weirdly cute for someone so intent on hurting him. "You're not any fun at all, are you, Avatar?"

"Maybe you could come back later!" Aang suggested brightly from halfway up a nearby oak tree. He was about twenty feet away from where Sokka and Toph were half-hidden in the bushes, but he was leading his opponent away as subtly as he could manage. He added, "We could schedule something, even! Do you like penguin sledding?"

“Hm, that sounds fun!” the girl giggled, darting up a nearby tree in pursuit. 

Despite himself, Aang was impressed by her ability to defy gravity. For an ordinary person, she was managing to be nearly as quick and light on her feet as an airbender, albeit not a particularly skilled one. 

Aang jumped away as she drew near, taking the opportunity to show off just how far she still had to go in mimicking the airbending ways by hovering twenty feet off the ground on a ball made of air. He stayed just out of reach of any jumping point from the trees deliberately, and watched as the girl paused on her branch and judged the distance speculatively.

After a few moments, she heaved a great sigh and put a hand on her hip. "Really," she said, looking rather put out by his avoidance of her. "I don't see why Azula likes to fight you so much. All you do is run away."

"I don't want to fight you," Aang said honestly. "I don't even know why you three keep attacking us."

"To capture you, obviously," she said brightly. "Mai and I serve Princess Azula, and we're taking over where Prince Zuko obviously failed." She nimbly moved up to another higher branch and looked down at him with a grin. "You know," she added conversationally, "you'll have to come down eventually. I bet hovering there is tiring."

She was right, but Aang wasn't about to let her know that. Instead, he floated up to match her height and asked, "So the girl with the daggers is called Mai? What about you?"

"I'm Ty Lee," she answered. Then she tilted her head quizzically before saying, "Oh, and you should probably duck."

"What?" Aang asked, but didn't stop to think further on the subject as he sensed an object approaching him, and he instinctively flew upwards. A glint of moonlight off a blade told him it was a slim dagger, and it flew harmlessly under him before embedding itself in a nearby branch.

"Oh, no fair flying higher!" he heard Ty Lee whine as she jumped up to reach him. Before she could get within grabbing distance of him, Aang whirled himself around, flipping backwards and shooting toward the ground. As he zoomed downward, he saw Katara roughly ten feet away from the forest's edge, arms whipping around like watery snakes as she blocked Mai's dagger attacks.

Aang created a wind tunnel around him as he flew down, and as he landed heavily at Katara's side, he redirected it toward the tall girl, sending her flying across the valley.

"Are you all right?" he asked Katara worriedly. He might have gone Avatar state earlier, but he hadn't really expended that much energy fighting while doing so. Katara, on the other had, had healed a good deal of Toph's injuries at rapid speed and had been exhausted even before the battle.

"Yeah," Katara said, catching her breath and wiping sweat away from her eyes. "Yeah, I think I—"

"Look out!" Aang interrupted with a shout, creating a burst of wind and pushing Katara back as Ty Lee leapt down to jab at Katara's limbs. The agile warrior immediately turned to chase after her, but Aang was quicker; before she could dodge out of his range he focused his will on the air around her arms and legs. Suddenly, she was struggling to move in mid-air, her arms and legs both pinned by invisible cuffs of oxygen.

It was difficult to hold another person in the air like this, especially if that person was struggling as fiercely as Ty Lee was, but Aang held on with determination, his jaw set as he concentrated on keeping the bonds firm. After a few moments, she stopped fighting so strongly against the hold and looked around to regard the technique with curious eyes.

"Now, that's kind of cool," she said appreciatively. Aang wondered if her constant pleasant attitude was genuine or if Ty Lee was actually a little insane. 

A wave of water shot by him abruptly, and Katara jumped in front of him, shouting, "Watch out, Aang!"

Aang glanced to the side and saw a pair of knives stuck in the ground just to the side of him. He gave Katara an abashed grin. "Sorry! It's hard to concentrate on keeping her here."

"You could let me go," Ty Lee advised cheerfully.

"Yeah," came a monotone voice from behind them. Aang turned to regard Mai, who was staying out of the moonlight and hiding herself in the shadows of the nearby trees. Katara was poised just in front of Aang, water glittering around her as she waited for another dagger to be flung at them. Mai added, "You're not going to be able to keep her up there forever."

"You'll eventually run out of knives," Katara shot back with a smirk.

"Really?" Mai asked in response, sounding honestly surprised by the concept. Aang felt a pit begin to well up in his stomach at the thought of just how many daggers the girl could carry.

"Hey, I've been wondering," Ty Lee asked as the standstill persisted. "Where's your cute warrior friend and the little blind girl? Don't they normally follow you around, too?"

Aang’s thoughts immediately shot to Sokka in the bushes, roughly thirty feet away, but he didn't look. He didn't even bat an eye as he answered, "They stayed back at camp."

"It's just us," Katara supported with a stoic expression. Then she added for emphasis, "Which is more than enough to beat you!"

"Too bad," Ty Lee said with a pout. "The warrior boy was so cute, too."

Katara made a disgusted face. “He’s my _brother_!”

“So he’s available, then?”

“Oh, gross!”

As Ty Lee distracted Katara, Mai took the opportunity to fling another pair of daggers at them, and Katara's water wasn't fast enough to stop the second one from getting close to Aang. In self-defense, he whipped a gust of air out to block it from hitting him in the chest, but the break in his concentration forced him to drop Ty Lee. 

Rapidly twisting his stance, Aang focused on the air currents and blew Ty Lee back thirty feet, earning them some time to get into a more prepared battle stance.

They stood back to back and waited as their two remaining enemies approached.

 

 

\--

 

 

The fire surrounded them. Him.

The dragon circled slowly, taking its time regarding its prey. She could tell by the lazy, confident steps and the sinuous twitch to its tail as it dragged along the dark earth. Her fingers flexed, reaching out to touch the life she knew lived in the ground, but her hands were pinned. She was bound by ropes made of branches, with leaves and thorns digging deeply into her arms and chest even as they prevented her movement.

"Sokka!" she whimpered. "Sokka, the dragon's going to eat us, we're going to be burned up! Cut me loose, cut me down, I have to stop the dragon from burning us up."

She could feel the stares of the men from the woods on her back. She curled away from the creeping feel of their hands on her throat, leaning into the heat. The dragon twisted a sharper circle around them, the heat burning all the brighter, but she would take her chances against the bright flames rather than the foul, dark unknown.

The branches tightened around her and she cried out. She couldn't even fight against them anymore; the flames were too hot around her, the bindings too tight. She could feel her limbs shaking with exhaustion, eyes already shut tight against the onslaught of warmth, and knew that she wasn't going to be able to fight for much longer.

Sokka was there, Toph knew. Sokka was there somewhere. He was by the dragon. The dragon was watching him. The dragon was watching

"Run, run," she repeated, and her own voice swam in her ears. "There's fire and the men, they'll grab you and hurt you, Sokka, there's something in the woods—"

_"Toph, please stay with me, come on," whispered a voice from above_ , but Toph was too far gone to notice anymore.

 

 

\--

 

 

It was a challenge keeping Toph quiet at first, but as Sokka kept his eye on the battle not too far away, he realized that it wasn't really an issue. Toph was too weak to really get any power behind her voice, so most of her delirious babble came out as mumbles anyway. 

Besides that, Sokka knew after a few minutes of watching that none of their enemies were going to be listening for random voices in the woods anyway. Not with the attacks that Aang and Katara kept throwing at them.

Honestly, Sokka was damned proud of his friends. Aang had been playing cat and mouse with the little circus girl for the entire time he had been out there, while Katara had taken their greatest threat out rather early on in the game. He wasn't sure how beat up Azula had been, but he certainly had given a silent cheer when Katara's thrust of icicles send the woman flying. 

Now Sokka just hoped desperately for a quick finish. They could run and free Appa in no time, maybe even get out of the valley before any of their foes could recover. And yeah, they'd have to run after that— there was no way their enemies would just let them hide safely in a nearby town— but maybe they could stop just long enough to get Toph some medicine and then hightail it. At the very least, they could all get some rest.

And Toph—

Sokka looked down at the feverish girl in his arms, whose struggles against him had slowly died down as delirium from the poison took over. Her face was flushed and sweaty, and she kept muttering something about a dragon and fire, interspersed with some talk of bad men. Sokka wasn't sure exactly how to make sense of it all. 

All he knew was that Toph was getting worse. He might not be as skilled as Katara at medicine, but he still knew plenty about disease and other dangers. Toph's body was rapidly failing against the poison, and they needed to get her out of here.

At that thought, Sokka looked over at the fight. Aang and Katara were fighting hard, but Sokka knew that their grip on victory was tenuous. The longer the fight persisted, the more likely the adrenaline would wear off and leave both Aang and Katara drained. 

Not to mention that Sokka wasn't sure what exactly had happened to Azula. The longer they lasted, the more likely it was that she'd show up again.

Toph muttered into the side of his throat, "The grass is frozen but the fire kills it, it kills it and the men are coming, Sokka, they'll hurt you too, Sokka, you need to run."

If they survived this, Sokka planned to make fun of Toph for making absolutely _no sense_ while she was poisoned. He didn’t even care that she had a good reason; he was going to tease her for _ages_.

Sokka watched the battle anxiously, feeling another pang of desperation as he saw Katara stumble under an onslaught of blows from the circus girl in pink, though thankfully none connected. Just as he was moments away from giving up and joining in the battle himself, danger be damned, he heard something he had been previously dismissing: the sound of Appa roaring in the distance, sounding furious.

Immediately, Sokka knew what he had to do. They couldn't battle forever, even if Aang and Katara could potentially win. They were too tired, Toph was too sick, and it was too great a risk. But he and Toph had yet to be noticed by their three pursuers. There was nothing stopping them from freeing Appa and flying to the rescue. 

They'd have to book it to make it to the village before their foes were able to pursue them on foot, but if they flew fast— if they could just swing in and grab some medicine to last Toph through the night, just to keep the poison from killing her—if worse came to worse, Katara could at least get some sleep and keep healing Toph until they could rest for real—

Sokka didn't bother contemplating his options. The instant the plan crystallized in his mind, he stood up, scooping Toph against him like a child, and began to slink through the trees toward the sound of Appa's roar. 

It was slow going at first. The forest was less cluttered near the edge, but it was still treacherous, and Sokka was trying to stay out of sight as much as possible. But he steadfastly kept moving, and slowly but surely he began to circle around to where Appa seemed to be.

He was nearly halfway there when Sokka saw something that turned his blood cold.

From his secluded position in the trees, Sokka saw the limping form of the fire warrior Azula slinking toward the battle. Her face was twisted into a foul glare, staring directly at Katara as she held her torso in a tight battle stance. As Sokka watched, he saw bright blue flame begin to form up in the palm of her right hand, shaping swiftly into a spinning ball. 

Sokka knew by instinct what she planned to do: send the circle of fire whirling at Katara's back. And he had no doubts that she could do it— Azula was dangerous and deadly, and she hadn't earned that reputation by missing.

In that split second, Sokka was frozen with indecision. He knew he should keep heading toward Appa— they had to retrieve the flying bison so they could get out of there. It was their best bet for survival.

But Sokka saw Azula darting toward his little sister, who was too busy using waterbending to keep Mai at bay to turn around and notice. Shouting a warning wouldn't do anything. Katara wouldn't be able to react in time, and he would only succeed in revealing himself and Toph.

Without thinking any further, Sokka snatched up his boomerang. He shifted Toph to his left side as he whipped his right arm around, flinging the weapon with the precision he had honed from hours of practice back in the South Pole.

The sharp weapon struck home against the side of Azula's head, ringing with a painful-sounding thunk. Azula stumbled in pain, whipping around with a shocked, furious expression, even as the deep gash along her cheek began to well up with blood. 

_Dammit_ , he had hoped that the blow would knock her out. Toph's weight against his hip had apparently thrown off his aim just enough to make the solid strike a glancing one. 

Despite his position in the woods, Sokka was standing close enough to the edge for Azula to see him clearly, and he saw the instant she realized just who had attacked her. _Shit._

He turned and ran for the other side of the clearing, where he could still hear Appa. Maybe if he made it, they could still free him with enough time to avoid Azula's counterattack, maybe even get Appa to help keep her at bay, and then—

Any further thought was cut off as Sokka felt the ground explode in flame underneath him, sending Toph and him flying forward. He landed heavily on his left shoulder, slamming into the hard dirt and knocking his senses for a loop. For a brief moment, he couldn't feel anything but the ringing blankness in his head and the sharp, piercing pain in his shoulder. He groggily moaned against the dirt, his hands scrambling for purchase reflexively even as he tried to remember precisely what he had been doing.

It was only a few second later that he came back to himself. Forcing himself to think through the pounding in his head, Sokka shoved his working right arm underneath himself and pushed himself up, biting down a fierce curse as his shoulder jarred painfully. He blinked a few times as his vision swam, and looked desperately around for Toph. The smaller girl had flown a few feet further than him. She was lying prone against the dirt, unmoving.

"Toph," he gasped out, and darted forward. She didn't react to his voice, but as he reached her and pulled her up against him, she stirred weakly.

"Sokka," she muttered, blinking in confusion and sounding somehow less dazed than before. Her hands twitched against the solid ground, small fingers digging into the dirt. "Sokka, the dragon, the dragon, she's here, Sokka-"

Abruptly, Toph's delirious babbling made a little more sense, and Sokka whipped around.

Azula stood before them, standing ten feet away with a cold, foul look in her eyes. Blood covered the entire left side of her face, dripping down her neck and seeping into the collar of her clothes. In her right hand, she held a spinning ball of flame, twice as big as the one she had been about to shoot at Katara and just as fiercely blue.

"You little snot," she hissed, rearing back with her flame-drenched hand. "I'll teach you to strike at me!"

She flung her hand forward flames bright against the black sky, and Sokka could do nothing to stop it. In the last instant, he turned and curled around Toph, wrapping as much of himself around her defenseless body as he could, shutting his eyes tight against the scorching heat he felt against his back.

There was heat, hot and painful and blazing, and then—

There was nothing but darkness.


	6. CHAPTER SIX

** PART 6 **

 

It took a few moments for Sokka to realize he was still alive.

He could hear the heavy sounds of his breath in the darkness, and felt the way his heartbeat was going crazy with fear. His back still felt uncomfortably warm, like when he got a sunburn for the first time after joining up with Aang. But the air was still around him, and it was utterly dark. At first, the only thing he was aware of was the ragged sound of his own breathing.

After a short while, he noticed that he could still feel Toph pressed tightly against his chest, her arms draped around his torso and face pressed into the crook of his neck. Her breath was hot and face damp against his skin, breathing shallowly in soft little bursts.

"Toph?" he asked. He moved to shift her weight against him and found that he couldn't. His arms were pinned down by something solid, pinning him to an equally firm, curved wall of some sort. As he examined further, he realized that it wasn't just his arms: his entire torso seemed to be covered by some unyielding presence, save where Toph was pressed firmly against him. In some ways, it was nice; his shoulder had been popped back into place and wasn't moving, which meant that aside from the occasional throbbing, Sokka didn’t have to deal with it.

But sitting in the darkness and being unable to move was disconcerting at any time, and having just survived a fiery death— somehow— Sokka found that he wasn't in any kind of mood to entertain strangeness.

"Toph?" he asked again, leaning his head down to rest beside hers. It was a strangely comfortable fit, which Sokka supposed was due to their odd position. "Toph, hey, say something. Toph? C'mon, mutter crazy crap again, I don't care, just say something."

Her breath grew a little deeper and she stirred against him, the strands of hair around his face tickling his nose. She turned her face a little, which Sokka only noticed as he realized that her lips were brushing against his neck.

"Sokka?" she murmured vaguely. It was the first time in a while that she had actively responded to something he had said, and Sokka leapt on the opportunity eagerly.

"Toph, hey, are you feeling okay?" he asked, and then rolled his eyes at his own inane question. "Never mind, of course you're not, but hey, uh, we're kind of— I'm not even sure. We're tied up? Or. Something. I don't know where we are. But I'm here, so don't worry."

Yeah. That was reassuring. Sokka could only imagine what a healthy Toph would have to say about his little speech, and concluded that it would probably involve a lot of derisive laughter.

As it was, Toph didn't reply to him for a while, as though it was taking a little while for his words to process. Then she huffed a laugh against his throat and said, "We're in the mountain, Sokka."

"The... mountain?" Sokka repeated, confused. There had definitely not been a mountain near the forest. Not for a couple hundred miles, in any case. He frowned down at Toph, asking, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The mountain that fights the dragon," she explained, and Sokka realized with a sinking heart that her break from insanity had been a ruse. She went on, "The dragon takes and takes, and burns and burns, but the mountain won't bow down, and the dragon can't burn it, it can't eat it, it can't kill it; it can only wait until the mountain falls, but," she said, and she giggled against him, her chest hitching, "but the mountain stands fast - it will never fall, because it is the mountain and it bows to no living being."

Sokka listened to Toph's delirious story with a certain bemusement that turned rapidly into startled recognition.

"Are you telling me a fairy tale?" he asked incredulously, realizing that he was actually familiar with the story that she was spinning. 

It was a story about a greedy dragon that roamed the earth destroying villages and taking the gold and food. The dragon was never satisfied and kept on taking as much as it could from the world - it conquered kingdoms with its fire, drank all the water from the rivers, and burned all the forests down. But when it went to the mountain to achieve its final victory, the dragon realized that it could not destroy the mountain, because stone was too powerful against the dragon's flame. The dragon tried its best but couldn't make the mountain fall, and wound up dying from trying too hard to force the mountain down.

The tale was a warning against greed, and Sokka remembered it from when Gran-Gran had held story time around the campfire for the little kids. He hadn't realized at the time that it was an Earth Nation folk tale, but it made sense. It wasn't surprising that Toph would have heard the same story growing up.

That still didn't explain why she was bringing it up now, though.

"We're in the mountain," Toph repeated, and giggled. It was strange to hear her normal laugh beset by her weak constitution, considering how it was usually powered by a ridiculous sense of overconfidence. "The mountain never bows to the dragon."

Sokka frowned, but paused before dismissing her ramblings. She warned him about Azula approaching through her metaphors earlier, as though she was still somewhat aware of what was going on despite her limited grasp on reality. And, now that he thought of it, she had referred to Azula as a "dragon" then, so if he were to follow her logic, then—

Sokka suddenly realize the significance of the pressure holding him and Toph down as well as just what the curved wall behind his back felt like. Shortly thereafter, he noticed with a jolt that though part of Toph's arms were pinned to his sides, he couldn't feel the rest twisting around his back, which could only mean that—

The rest of her arms were _in the wall_.

"Toph!" he accused, shocked and a little awed by the realization. "Did you earthbend us into a rock?"

"The dragon tries and tries," Toph muttered, her lips curving into a small smile on his neck. "But the mountain can't feel the flames and will never fall."

Sokka sat in silence for a moment after her rather poetic explanation, adjusting himself to this new reality.

"Okay," he said appreciatively, "I admit it. You're cool. I mean, I knew you were a great earthbender and all, but now I'm officially on the Blind Bandit's side. No more Boulder. I am 100% Bandit, all the way, from now on."

"The men cannot enter and freeze the ground, can't touch and hurt, because sun's fire is gone," mumbled Toph in response.

Sokka blinked, then added, "And maybe when you're not delirious I'll thank you for saving my life."

They sat in relative silence for a few moments. Toph seemed calmed by the presence of earth around her, as well as able to think better in her element. Sokka just took the time to be profoundly grateful he wasn't dead, but as the moments passed slowly by, he began to strain his ears to listen for sounds of the battle outside. 

As great as safety was, Sokka knew that Aang and Katara were still out there, fighting for their lives.

Just as he was about to suggest to Toph that she open a window in the rock or something, the walls around them shuddered under a fierce blow. Along the wall to his left, the rock heated up and glowed faintly red under the hit. 

Before he could say anything, another blow hit in another section, then another, and still more blows came in rapid succession. In the red glow that resulted from the heated rocks, Sokka could see the shape of their safe haven. It looked like Toph had hollowed out a medium-sized boulder and pinned both of them down with rock to the bottom. There was perhaps enough room for a couple more people to fit pushed up against them, but only barely. If he were free to stand, Sokka doubted he'd be able to do so comfortably.

"What the hell—?" he gasped out as yet another hot blast struck against their rock, though he already suspected the cause of the attacks.

He focused as best he could through the ringing sound within the boulder, and could faintly hear the shrill sound of Azula shrieking outside the fortress. Something about not getting away, he gleamed, but it was hard to decipher her meaning through the constant blows.

Toph growled against his shoulder as the attack continued, and she snarled, "Dragons shouldn't use the sun. Mountains hate the sun, they like the cold, they like the plants and the cities and earth, not the _sun_."

"Well, maybe the mountains should tell the dragons that," Sokka replied sarcastically.

Toph froze against him, and Sokka felt a spark of worry grow in his mind as he felt her beginning to move. Her arms shifted up, moving within the rock with irritating ease, and Sokka knew immediately that he was right to worry.

"Toph?" he queried anxiously. "Toph, what are you doing?"

"The mountain doesn't have to take this crap," Toph replied with vigor, sounding almost like her old self, and Sokka would have been relieved if not for the horrifying realization that the boulder was moving.

 

 

\--

 

 

The earth surrounded her, and she was back.

The world was still on fire, but Toph could feel the stone revolving around her and reveled in it, stretching out her senses to grasp where the rest of the earth could be found. The dragon stalked violently outside, throwing the sun again and again at the stone walls, but she could take it.

She was the mountain. No dragon would beat her.

But the fire grew hotter with the barrage of sun, and anger bloomed in her heart. How dare the dragon attack, how _dare_ it presume it could beat the mountain? The mountain was steadfast against the sun, but the dragon kept forcing the sun against her, heating her, causing her pain and making the warrior breathe heavier against her. She could feel his heart beat rapidly beneath her, and she growled.

And then he said something, she couldn't quite recall, but she abruptly remembered: the mountain could _move_.

 

 

\--

 

 

Katara was blocking another attack from Mai with a swift swipe of water when she heard a sharp clang behind her. She looked back to see Azula whip around furiously, her face bloody and fists clenched down at her sides. A quick glance further revealed Sokka standing at the edge of the forest, Toph slumped limply in his arms and clearly visible to everyone.

_What is he doing?_ Katara thought desperately, anger and fear blooming in her mind as she saw Azula stalk toward them. She couldn't imagine any reason for him to reveal himself except— 

She suddenly pieced together the bloody wound on Azula's face with the princess's dangerously close position, and realized what must have happened.

Any further thought on the matter was diverted by Mai's resumed attack. Katara was forced to face the tall girl even as she heard an explosion of fire behind her. She winced even as she whipped a string of water at Mai's face, trying to push the girl away. If only she could just defeat her for long enough to attack Azula, distract her somehow, just long enough for Sokka to run away and get Toph to safety. 

Unfortunately, Mai was not easily bested. Katara kept trying to knock her away, just for long enough to take a shot at Azula, but she kept dodging. She wasn't ridiculously acrobatic like Ty Lee was, but she was swift. And though Katara was quick enough to dodge most of Mai's daggers, some still managed to pin down pieces of Katara's clothing. 

It was only through luck that Katara managed to rip free before Mai could pin her down completely, and now she had so many tears in her tunic she would need to buy new thread just to repair them all. She supposed she should feel grateful that Mai wasn't actively trying to kill her.

Finally, Katara finally broke free from her fight with Mai long enough to turn and run toward her brother's position, but she had barely taken two steps when she saw something that nearly stopped her heart cold.

Sokka was kneeling on the ground facing Azula, a motionless Toph slumped in his arms. Azula stood before him with a swirling ball of fire in her hands.

As Katara watched, horrified, Azula reared back and shot the fireball straight at the pair.

Sokka's eyes widened, his face stark pale in the light of the flame, and Katara screamed—

The fire collided and there was an explosion of dust as it hit the ground, shrouding the entire area in soot. Katara ducked her head away to cough, feeling the sharp burn of tears behind her eyes. There was no way Sokka could have survived that. No way that he could have jumped away— no way he would have, not with Toph lying helplessly in the line of fire. And even if he somehow miraculously made it, even then, he would be horribly burnt; he would probably die soon enough, and either way, Katara's big brother would be gone.

A dagger struck a tree trunk near Katara and she whipped around, furious beyond measure. A stream of water flowed out from her hands, and somehow Katara felt a new strength to her waterbending she hadn't felt all battle. 

Mai's eyes widened as she barely avoided the renewed attack, flipping backward with impressive speed. She landed a bit roughly and immediately drew back, adjusting to the sudden turn of the fight.

"That was my _brother_!" Katara snarled viciously, feeling hot tears in her eyes. For once, Mai looked something other than bored; instead, glancing quickly over at the slowly clearing scene by Azula, she seemed surprised and startled. But the emotion didn't stay long as she was forced to fend off Katara's increasingly violent attacks.

"He never did _anything_ to you!" Katara added, not caring that Mai hadn't been the one who attacked Sokka and Toph. She followed her crazy leader, and it was her fault that Katara hadn't been able to stop Azula from attacking. She would feel the full force of Katara's anger until Katara could get to Azula herself. 

She shot Mai directly in the chest with a blast of water, sending her flying back five feet. She clenched her fists and advanced on the fallen fighter, screaming, "Toph was only _twelve_! And your crazy leader just killed them!"

Mai scrambled to her feet, flinging a couple daggers that Katara knocked aside effortlessly. She looked back at the scene quickly, darting away from Katara’s advance, and then replied, "They're not dead! You can stop freaking out."

And maybe it was just a ruse to keep Katara from finishing her off, but Katara was willing to buy it. Keeping a suspicious eye on Mai, she turned to look. 

Instead of a burnt out crater, there was a large boulder now sitting on the patch of cracked dirt where Sokka and Toph had been. It was taller than Azula by a few feet, and the outside was smooth and solid, like a large stone marble.

It took Katara a few moments to understand, but when it hit her, she felt tears spring anew in her eyes.

Toph had been _awake_. Despite her exhaustion and injury, somehow she had been conscious enough to know that Azula was attacking and had protected herself and Sokka behind an impenetrable stone barrier. Any issues she and Toph had shared before vanished; in that moment, Katara would have willingly agreed to anything Toph said for the rest of their lives, just because she had saved Sokka. Her brother wasn't gone, and Katara could hardly breath through her relief.

Unfortunately, even as she watched, she saw Azula begin to fling hot balls of fire at the boulder, screaming at the pair that dared defy her attack. The stone glowed red-hot under the continuous volley, and Katara realize in horror that even if the flames didn’t shatter the boulder, they could easily heat the inside to a devastating degree.

Katara started toward Azula, meaning to distract the princess from her intent, but Mai had recovered from Katara's attack and leapt in front of her. Engaged at she was in dodging daggers, Katara could only watch the continuing action in glances over Mai's shoulder.

Luckily, within the next minute Toph apparently decided to take her own action. As Katara dove to the ground to avoid a strike— whipping out a stream of water that knocked Mai on her backside as she did so— she felt the ground beneath her shake. Glancing over at the battle ground adjacent to theirs, Katara saw something that she had not expected: the boulder was rolling forward, picking up speed even as Azula staggered backwards, looking startled.

Katara rocked back on her heels as Mai climbed quickly to her feet, but the tall girl surprised her by looking over at the ensuing adjacent fight and pausing in confusion. Katara stayed defensive, water whip hovering around her wrist, but she welcomed the respite and wathed the developing scene.

Toph's movement had clearly meant to startle Azula. In the next moment, the boulder halted and began to shoot out sharp slivers of rock at the slim woman. Azula dodged nimbly, but the boulder was large and was able to shoot out multiple shards of stone toward her. By the time Azula made it to the trees, she was cut twice and breathing hard, and only barely managed to leap up onto a low branch.

Katara noted with mild surprise that Aang and Ty Lee had also stopped fighting to watch as Azula caught her breath in the tree. The warrior glared down at the boulder slowly rolling forward, holding her wounded side. Glancing away from the threat, Azula saw the rest of them standing there, staring at the scene.

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking furious.

Mai shrugged, flatly replying, "Your fight is more interesting."

Azula stared at her warriors incredulously, and then gave an outraged snarl, punching the tree trunk in frustration. Unfortunately, the strike must have sent vibrations into the earth, because moments later, the boulder rammed into the tree trunk, apparently trying to knock Azula loose. It sat back again as Azula clung to her perch shakily.

"Ugh!" Azula snarled down at the rock, looking furious. Then she looked over at Mai and Ty Lee, considered her options, and smoothed down her hair in a distinctly regal manner. 

"This fight is over," she pronounced regally. Her expression looked like she had bit into a lemon, but Katara figured Azula knew when the odds had turned against her. "Mai, Ty Lee," she commanded, "we're leaving now."

Promptly, the two girls turned away from Aang and Katara and ran into the woods, followed by Azula, who leapt from branch to branch instead of risking Toph chasing her on the ground. Given how densely packed the forest was, Katara honestly doubted that Toph even could.

As it was, Katara heaved a deep sigh of relief, feeling exhaustion settle firmly in her limbs.

 

 

\--

 

 

Inside the boulder, Sokka's head spun horribly.

"OH LORD," he gasped after the movement finally stopped. Sokka had quickly figured out that just because he couldn't see in the darkness didn't mean that he couldn't feel dizzy. Toph hadn't listened to any of his desperate screams for her to stop making the boulder roll around and tremble, so after the initial shock, he simply tucked his head into her shoulder and waited for it to be over.

Now the boulder was still, and Sokka concentrated on quelling the churning of his stomach. He knew Toph would never forgive him if he repaid her saving his life by vomiting on her.

After a few moments, he finally felt relatively normal, if still a little shaky.

"Holy crap, Toph," Sokka muttered into the girl's shoulder, wanting nothing more than to get out of that boulder. "I mean, that was awesome, but _what the hell_ , man."

Silence was his only response. He couldn't even hear Toph muttering to herself crazily anymore. As he listened carefully, Sokka heard her breathe deep and even. Her face was burning hot against his own.

"Toph?"

 

 

\--

 

 

After the battle, Aang promptly took his glider and flew to free Appa and Momo. The three Fire nation warriors had tied him down with thick cords, bracing them against the old, rooted trees of the forest. Appa was thrilled to see him, of course, and Aang definitely spent a few moments reveling in the fact that his oldest friend and newest pet hadn't been injured. They all flew back to the clearing, where he saw Katara regarding the still motionless boulder with a concerned expression.

"What do you mean, she can't free you?" Katara was asking as Aang landed nearby, jumping off Appa in one smooth motion.

From inside the rock, Aang could just barely hear Sokka's voice shouting back, "She's unconscious! I can't wake her up."

"That's… not good," Aang observed with a sinking heart. He regarded the boulder with an experienced eye and asked Sokka loudly, "How hollow is the rock?"

"What?"

"How much room do you have inside the boulder?" he rephrased.

There was a pause as Sokka considered the question, and then he replied, "I only saw it for a moment, but there’s maybe enough room to stand up? If I crouched, maybe. And if I wasn’t pinned down by rock. There’s not much space."

"That's really not good," Aang concluded, grimacing. He looked over at Katara. "They can't have much air left in there, and if Toph is unconscious..."

"You need to let us out!" Sokka shouted from inside.

"Yeah," Katara agreed, looking at Aang expectantly. "Can't you just use your earthbending to break it apart?"

Aang frowned, considering the option. The top of the boulder was above his head, and from Sokka's approximations of the inner chamber, he presumed the walls were pretty thick. Smashing through the stone wouldn't be an issue objectively; he had certainly destroyed rocks twice as thick as this during a few of Toph's more intensive earthbending sessions, but whether or not he was capable was not the issue at the moment.

"Well," Aang began hesitantly, placing a splayed hand on the outside of rock. "I don't think I can."

"What?" Sokka replied, his voice cracking in his surprise. "What do you mean? It's rock, isn't it? Aren't you an earthbender?"

Katara added with a much softer tone, "Can you just— I don't know, melt it away like Toph does with rock?"

"I'm not Toph," Aang replied honestly, brow furrowing. He caught the look in Katara's eyes and continued, "No, I'm serious, this isn't just me being frustrated. Toph is a _really_ good earthbender. I may be the Avatar, but there's a reason I need a teacher. I can't sense the earth like she does yet." 

He started feeling around the boulder actively with both hands, trying to find any way that he could break it open without subsequently crushing his two trapped friends inside. Aang explained, "Right now, I'm really good at destroying rocks en masse, but I really don't think you want me to do that."

There was a long pause, then Sokka called out weakly, "...yeah, I think I'm okay with not being crushed by rocks, thanks."

"But you have to do something!" Katara said, a hint of desperation showing in her tired eyes. She held up her hand and twirled a ribbon of water around it weakly, adding, "I mean, I could try with waterbending, but unless we have roughly a thousand years or so for me to erode the rock away, I'm thinking we'll have to bow to your earthbending on this one."

Aang grimaced at her sarcasm, recognizing the frustration that bubbled beneath the surface of her words. Instead, he took a calming breath and closed his eyes, hands splayed on the rock in front of him. He wasn't great at earthbending yet, but when he concentrated, he could feel the dimensions of the rock beneath his skin. Darkness surrounded him, but when he struck the rock with the heel of one hand, he could sense the vibrations running through it, like seeing shapes through the fog. He could almost make out the shapes of Sokka and Toph inside, lying pinned at the base of the stone. 

As he considered the task ahead, he was suddenly struck with the memory of his last training session with Toph. Was it really not even a day ago? Aang thought, amazed, even as he was recalling Toph’s instructions. Every rock had multiple weak points, she had said, even rocks constructed by earthbending.

His mind sparked with inspiration as he remembered the way Toph's mud warriors had dissolved, realizing what he had to do. Presumably, if he could find the weakest point, he'd be able to break through the fortress without destroying the whole rock.

This realization in hand, Aang wasted no time in settling into a solid earthbending stance. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to risk being distracted by something as irrelevant as sight when it came to sensing flaws in the rock formation. He placed his hands on the boulder and stretched out his senses, practically hearing Toph's high voice in his head: _"It's not like a scan, Twinkletoes. It's something that you should be observing instinctually when you first feel it with your feet."_

For a few long moments, Aang felt at one with the stone, as though the rock was just another extension of his senses. He doubted he would be able to bend the solid rock very well without losing the sensation, but he realized this must be how Toph always felt. Like how he was with air currents. It suddenly struck him how difficult flying must really be for her. He couldn't imagine spending his entire life with this kind of connection to the ground and then having to lose it.

Once Aang settled in his stance, it only took a short time for Aang to locate the best fracture in the stone to use. In a way, the fact that the boulder was made by earthbending made the process easier: unlike normal rocks, which had dozens of natural weak points, Toph's stone had been constructed specifically to be a fortress. As such, there were very few breaks in the stonework, and those that were there were only there by design. 

And Toph had been practical in her bending: there were at least two different points of the rock that Aang could use to break through with relatively minimal effort.

Presently, Aang made his way to the most accessible point. He centered himself on the spot and took a deep breath before shooting his pointed fingers forward, sharply delving into the stone and shattering the framework around it. Opening his eyes, he saw that he had opened a good-sized hole in the side of the boulder, more than big enough for a person to climb through. In the stone, he saw Sokka blink in surprise and smile broadly.

"Awesome!" Sokka said gratefully, his expression elated. Toph was pinned to his chest; her face was tucked into the crook of his shoulder, and she showed no reaction to Aang's intrusion. Both Sokka and Toph were covered by rock, but Aang could sense the slimness of the stone and knew it wouldn't be too difficult for him to break both of his friends free.

"Well, you look comfortable," Aang teased as he climbed inside.

"Uh, yeah, no," Sokka replied, though his smile never dimmed. "Shockingly, stone? Not comfy. And Toph is practically burning me, her skin is so hot. I would really love to get out of here."

"Can do," Aang assured him.

Katara, from the entrance of the boulder, said, "And then we can get back to the village and get some help."

Aang glanced back at her and took note of the bags under her eyes and the way her hand clung tightly to the side of the rock, as if to steady her step. He saw dried blood on the side of Sokka’s face and the way he winced as Aang dug at the stone around his shoulder. 

And Toph— Aang didn't even want to consider how far gone she was. He didn't want to worry if she had spent the rest of her energy saving Sokka from Azula, or if the poison was too far along to be healed. He didn’t want to think that they were going to rush Toph to the village only to watch her die.

He worked swiftly, feeling his face settle into a hard expression. He wouldn't let anyone die. Not if he could help it. But even as he freed Sokka and Toph, Aang couldn't help the way the sight of Toph's limp body made his stomach twist with worry. She was barely breathing, unconscious in Sokka's arms as they flew quickly on Appa's back.

Aang could do nothing more than urge Appa to go faster, knowing that every moment brought his fears closer and closer to reality.


	7. CHAPTER SEVEN

PART 7

 

The early morning sun cast a golden glow through the open window, highlighting a square of the dark green quilt draped over the bed. Propped up on the bed were two bare feet, clean but callused, and belonging to the tall slumbering boy perched on a wooden chair beside the bed. His head was tilted back against the chair's sturdy frame, mouth open as he breathed deeply. One arm was wrapped tightly in a bandage, while the other was extended across the bed, large hand resting solidly on the hand of the bed's occupant.

The door to the room creaked open quietly and Aang walked in carrying a bucket of water. He set it down a bit loudly, and Sokka woke with a start.

"Ugh," Sokka moaned, rubbing the back of his neck with his uninjured hand. "Ow. Seriously, this is like the crick of death."

Aang smiled at him sheepishly, saying, "Sorry for waking you." He glanced over his shoulder at the still ajar door and added, "Although I think Katara's going to be here in a second, so it's probably better that I did."

"Doesn't matter," Sokka muttered, shrugged. He winced as he rotated his neck, clearly not finding a comfortable position. "My neck's going to ache for the rest of the day no matter how I woke up."

"Hm," Aang agreed quietly, before turning to regard the still form in the bed. He kept his expression carefully blank as he watched the slow rise and fall of her chest, asking, "Any change?"

He couldn't keep the desperate hope out of his voice, and Aang imagined that Sokka was feeling the same way. Toph was pale and motionless under the heavy quilt, with deep circles under her eyes and bandages wrapped around her chest. 

It had been three days since they had rushed back to the village with Toph unconscious in Sokka's arms, and Katara practically passed out in Aang's. The first hour back had been chaotic. Nearly every member of the village had greeted them, despite the late hour, and thankfully the village healer had been able to stabilize Toph enough to keep her from dying. 

It had been close, the healer told them later. If they had arrived any later, it would have been too late to save her. Aang had to leave the room when the doctor said that, unable to deal with the reality of the situation. It was easier to watch over Katara, whose debilitating exhaustion was at least not bordering on fatal.

In the end, all the medicine in the world couldn't immediately cure that much poison and the doctor's inspection soon revealed that some of Toph's cuts had become infected as well. Her fever had only just broken the day before. Before that, she had been delirious and panicked every time she woke up, clearly still disoriented. 

Sokka was the one who seemed to calm her down the most, though it seemed to be mainly because Toph still vaguely remembered the battle, even in her delirious state. Whenever Aang and Katara were watching over her, she would fret about Sokka fighting against a dragon and get anxious until Sokka returned. Sokka explained the whole fairy tale analogy to the rest of them with great amusement, though he’d still grow tense and serious whenever Toph began feverishly mumbling again.

It had been a long three days of waiting and worrying. Aang spent most of the first night standing guard over Katara while Sokka helped the healer with Toph, because Katara had scarcely made it off Appa in the village before she had collapsed, legs refusing to work any longer from sheer exhaustion. The healer surmised as much, getting one of his assistants to brew a drought, advising at _least_ a full day's rest.

Katara being who she was, she had been fighting against those orders within half a day, insisting that they needed her help with Toph. Truth be told, Katara's healing abilities might have helped the young girl heal faster, but by the time Katara had fought her way beside Toph's bedside, she concluded reluctantly that Toph would heal without her using bending to help it along.

She then promptly curled up next to Toph and slept for more than a day straight, ignoring the coming and going of the healers and Toph's occasional babbling all the while. She had woken up just after Toph's fever broke the day before and had gratefully accepted the offer of He Li Wen's family to recuperate and freshen up at their house instead of crowding up the healer's spare room.

"Actually," Sokka replied brightly to Aang's question, smiling down at Toph, "she woke up last night." He reached forward with his good hand and brushed some stray hair away from her face, and her nose twitched as the movement tickled her. She otherwise didn't respond.

"She did?" Aang asked anxiously, stepping closer from excitement. "What'd she say? Is she okay? Does she - um, remember? What happened?"

"Don't know," Sokka said. "She woke up for a few minutes, and at first I thought she was still delirious, because she started muttering something about the dragon again, but she said she thought she had dreamed about me fighting a dragon, and asked where the hell we were." He grinned at Aang and added, "She fell asleep again before I could answer. Lazy," he accused, poking Toph in the arm.

"Oh," Aang said in response, staring down at his teacher's still form with a small frown. He shifted awkwardly at the bedside, and then put forth, "Maybe... I mean, I kind of hope..."

Sokka looked up at him curiously.

"It would be nice if she didn't remember," Aang finished quietly. "Wouldn't it? The Wild Woman, I mean. That's something I wish I could forget." A cruel voice inside him whispered, _and then you wouldn't have to feel guilty anymore, would you?_ The voice changed to the shrill hissing of the Wild Woman, accusing, _Selfish boy!_ Aang made a face at the memory, trying hard to ignore the twisting of his stomach as he considered how Toph must have felt.

Sokka raised an eyebrow curiously at Aang's expression, but didn't bother to comment on it. Looking back at Toph, he acknowledged, "Maybe it would be nice, but I don't know if she'd like forgetting something that happened to her. Seems a little out of control for someone like her." He shrugged, adding, "Besides, when she's not talking fairy tales, she doesn't seem to mention her that much. Mainly she freaks out about random men in the forest, for whatever reason."

Aang blinked at this revelation, torn from his guilty thoughts by the strangeness of the situation. "Men in the forest?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Sokka confirmed. "She kept saying the men were going to hurt us." He shrugged again, clearly not knowing what more to say on the matter, but Aang could see the tension in his eyes as he stared down at Toph. The fingers on his healthy hand were tapping out a continuous beat on the pale skin of her arm, and Aang smiled at the thought of Toph waking up just to yell at Sokka for annoying her. It was probably exactly was Sokka was going for.

Aang started to say something comforting, like "Maybe it was just another fairy tale," but before he could speak, the door opened and Katara walked in with another bucket full of water in her hands. She set it down next to the one that Aang had brought, saying, "One of these is for you, Sokka."

"Thanks," Sokka said with a nod, though he didn't move from his chair. He started to tap his fingers up and down Toph's arms in mimicry of a person walking, smiling fondly when a muscle in Toph's face twitched, followed by the slight furrow of her brow.

Katara gave him a Look, the kind that Aang always quietly capitalized in his mind. "Sokka! She needs to rest, you know."

"Yeah, I know," he replied, and when he looked at Katara his face was set in a stoic expression. "But we can't stay here much longer. I don't know how Azula and her crazy friends found us, but we can't risk them attacking the village. We've already stayed here way too long."

"Toph was sick!" Katara chastised, looking offended by the statement

"I didn't say it was for a bad reason!" said Sokka with a pained look, tensing. He quickly defended, "We didn't have a choice, I totally get that. But look, her fever's almost gone, and she woke up last night for a little bit. She can sleep on Appa just as easily as here, and we can just fly until we get to another town to hide out. I just don't think staying here is going to be safe— for any of us."

Aang considered his position and agreed, "He has a point. I really don't want to risk this village getting attacked because we lingered here too long."

"I'm not going to agree to leave until I've at least checked Toph over," Katara said simply, her face impassive despite the worry in her eyes. She said to Sokka, "You're right, but if flying is going to make Toph worse, I would rather take the chance. Besides, this time it'll be three on three, and we'll all be at full strength instead of exhausted."

"And they'll be better prepared," Sokka shot back, though his tone lacked venom. "You think they won't try and strike where it hurts?"

"They'd try to find Toph first," Aang caught on, recognizing the tactic. "Now that they know we're all here. She's too sick to fight, and it'd be the easiest way to control us all."

"Especially after Toph chased Azula around like a puppy-squirrel after a nut," Sokka said, allowing a fond smile to grace his face. He turned back toward Toph and said, "You hear that, Toph? I called you a puppy-squirrel. Because you're so tiny and cute. Oh, and insane, but mainly the tiny yappy part."

Clearly Sokka was going on the "annoy Toph until she wakes up" track. Toph didn't react, but Aang reached out and lightly smacked Sokka on the head for her. It seemed the dutiful thing to do.

Katara sighed, saying reluctantly, "You might be right, but that doesn't mean I'm going to change my mind if Toph is still too sick." She turned to the slumbering Toph and felt her forehead as she pulled water to surround her other hand, continuing, "The healer said a week of rest a least, though I don't think he was taking our situation into account..."

She trailed off, her expression growing spacey as she began to use waterbending to check on Toph's health. For a few moments, nothing changed, but soon Toph began to twitch under the attention, clearly uncomfortable with the feeling of cool water on her skin.

"Hey Toph," Sokka said in the same annoying voice as before, poking Toph in the side. "Heeey, Katara's gonna give you a bath, Toph. No more mud ever. I bet she's gonna make you wear a frilly dress, too."

"Sokka," Katara reprimanded, giving Sokka a foul look.

Sokka ignored her, poking Toph again as the young girl made a face and tried to squirm away from his touch. "She's gonna tie a bow in your hair," he added, grinning as Toph made a vague sound of protest, raising up her hand weakly in order to bat Sokka's away.

Encouraged, Aang snickered and threw in, "I bet she's gonna get makeup too!"

"Oooh, and those little frilly sock things!"

"White lacy gloves?"

"Definitely. Toph can't be a lady without lacy gloves."

"Guys!" Katara interrupted, sounding exasperated. "I am not! And I can't concentrate when you two keep annoying me."

"I'm not trying to annoy you," Sokka protested, his expression gleaming with false innocence.

"Yeah," Aang agreed. "I'm pretty sure this conversation is tailored to annoy Toph."

"It's working," muttered a hoarse voice from the bed, and all three looked down to look at Toph. Her eyes were still closed, but she proceeded to grab Sokka's hand and mutter, "If you don't stop poking me, I'm gonna hit you."

Her voice was scarcely more than a whisper, but Aang was relieved to hear it all the same after those three days of anxious worrying. "Toph!" he cheered happily, putting his hands on her's and Sokka's. "Are you feeling better? Does anything hurt?"

Toph pondered his question silently for a moment before answering, "Just my chest, a little, and my head. But I think my headache's mainly from Snoozles babbling like an idiot at me all morning."

"Aww, you heard all that?" Sokka said, grinning. "I tried to make all my insults especially irritating, just for you."

"You're all heart," she replied dryly.

"Anyway," Katara interjected with a pointed look, "I checked you over with waterbending and everything looks relatively okay, Toph. I know you're probably exhausted still, but we do need to leave soon if possible. Like Sokka said, it's still dangerous."

"Um," Toph replied after a brief pause. She managed to sit up a little, rubbing at her eyes with the back of one hand. "Okay, I guess," she agreed, frowning, "but uh… what happened? Last I remember, we..."

Toph trailed off, and Aang noticed her face paling as the memories from their experience began to return. All his previous amusement vanished as though it had never been there, leaving behind the crushing weight of guilt.

"We were leaving the forest," she finally continued. "And um. Was someone there?" Aang had never seen Toph look so confused before, but he imagined he would feel just the same in her position.

"Yeah," Katara replied softly. "It was those three crazy girls from before." She looked over at Sokka and Aang and said, "Hey, why don't you two get everything ready to leave by this afternoon? I can tell Toph what happened and get all our things ready, and then we can try to keep moving, okay?"

Sokka gave her a sharp nod, standing and stretching his good arm up in the air. He winced a bit as it jarred his shoulder, but he said nothing except, "All right, I can see when we're not wanted. C'mon, Aang."

"I'm glad you're awake," Aang told Toph before following Sokka out. He squeezed her hand once, and Toph tilted her head at him, looking bemused.

"Yeah, me too," Sokka agreed. Just before they exited, he shouted back, "And you better not fall asleep again or I'm going to poke you until you bruise!"

A loud clang sounded just before they shut the door, but neither of them needed to look back to know that Toph had tried to throw the water pail at him.

 

 

\--

 

 

Getting their things together and leaving was relatively easy once Katara was assured of Toph's ability to travel. 

They thanked the villagers for assisting their recovery, particularly Lao Meiying, but no one in the village would accept any apologies for inconvenience. Rather, they were so grateful to be rid of the wraith, they showered them with more supplies than Appa could even hold. Katara had reservations about taking so much, especially when she saw some of the poorer families in the village, but Sokka had been the one in change of collecting the goods and he seemed to view them as rightfully earned.

Once they were in the air, however, Katara began to notice some problems that they had missed in the village. Toph spent most of the time toward the back, secured down in a small little corner of bags and huddled in on herself against the wind. She slept a lot, which Katara was pleased about, because she still had a mild fever when they left and Katara didn't relish the idea of it getting higher again. Katara made thick soups out of the supplies the villagers had provided and made sure to give Toph any medicine she needed, but otherwise left her alone.

Sokka and Aang, however, seemed to be taking the role of nursemaid to heart, and not in a good way. Aang was constantly checking up on Toph, trying to provide extra blankets or bits of food from seemingly nowhere, sometimes even interrupting her sleep in order to make sure she was comfortable.

"How can I be comfortable on a saddle, Twinkletoes?" Toph sniped at him the third time Aang asked, anxiety hanging stark in the air around him. She swatted in the air near his face, waving him away like a bothersome fly, and sank deeper into the blankets around her.

Sokka was a little subtler about his over protectiveness, but to Katara, who had known him her entire life, it was still obvious. Unlike Aang's constant fretting, Sokka simply never left Toph's side. At first, Katara had assumed it was a coincidence, but then she noticed that every time they stopped to eat or sleep, Sokka followed Toph around. Even when Toph needed to go somewhere alone for personal matters or bathing, Sokka would sit anxiously waiting for her to return. 

During the first couple days of travel, Katara understood where Sokka was coming from— she also tended to check up on Toph more than she really needed to, just to make sure that she wasn't going to get sick again. But when they had been on the move for five days and Sokka still wasn't letting up, Katara figured there was some kind of underlying problem.

As for Toph… she seemed to be healing well enough, but Katara noticed that she really wasn't talking. Replying to questions, sure, and definitely sniping at everyone when they got too overbearing with the caretaking, but she was being usually quiet otherwise. After three days in the air, Katara realized that she hadn't heard Toph speak once about what had happened to her. 

She would have just brushed it off as Toph being Toph— the earthbender often kept her own council, and though Katara was trying to get her to open up, this sort of touchy subject was not really the best topic.

However, on the third night she noticed something strange. Toph refused to sleep alone anymore, but she also didn't sleep by either of the boys. 

It wasn't obvious. The first night, they had flown on Appa through the night, and Katara's spot on the saddle was already next to Toph's. The second night, they landed late and scarcely did anything but set up camp and sleep, and since that night's camp was in a cave, Katara hadn't thought anything of Toph curling up next to her in the corner.

But on the following nights, they had landed with plenty of sunlight left and slept under open air. However, Toph still grabbed her bag, set it down next to Katara's, and plopped down unceremoniously, stretching out flat on the soft earth. After the fifth night, Katara couldn't even blame it on coincidence; there was a light shower in the evening, but before Katara could even unpack her tent, Toph had already made one big enough to cover both of them, clearly showing her intent.

It wasn't really that strange, despite how independent Toph usually acted. If Katara had been the one the wraith took, she probably would have insisted that everyone sleep in a heap for the next month just to be sure that someone was there. What really worried Katara wasn't Toph's sudden dependency, but rather the way she would only let Katara sleep next to her. If Aang or Sokka slept too close, Toph would either curl tighter next to Katara or even, as on the second night, actually change spots sometime in the night so that Katara was between her and the boys. 

Katara wasn't sure why Toph felt safer around her, but she knew it was something that had to be fixed. Even if she wasn't able to feel Toph's rapid heartbeat every time one of the boys drew too close at night, she could see the way Sokka and Aang were taking it to heart. Toph couldn't see the way her actions pained them and no one was going to make her change, but Katara knew that if things kept on the way they had been, nothing would get resolved.

Due to this, Katara suggested to Aang that they stop early on the sixth day.

"I just think that we've put enough distance in," she explained simply, "and I personally just want to relax a bit. There's a big lake coming up, isn't there, Sokka?"

Sokka, sitting predictably by a dozing Toph, looked up from his study of the map and nodded, adding, "I think stopping sounds like a good idea. Any longer in the air and I'm going to get saddle sores. And giant air bison saddle sores are something no one wants."

So, as soon as they arrived at the lake, they landed. Unpacking didn't take too long; even Toph participated, though Katara suspected it was part of her attempt to stop Sokka and Aang from constantly pestering her about her health. Once everything was set up, Toph stalked away quietly, rolling her eyes when Aang tried to give her a blanket and shoving him over with earthbending. Before he could offer again, she was gone, heading in the direction of some nearby caves.

"I swear _by the earth_ , Aang," she snarled over her shoulder as she left, fists clenched by her sides, "if you follow me with that stupid blanket, I'm going to bury you so far beneath the ground that you'll never feel air again. I don't care that you're the Avatar; we'll just get another in like, nine months or so."

That was harsh, even for Toph, and Katara didn’t miss the stricken look on Aang's face. Though she and the boys took the opportunity to bathe while Toph was off sulking, when Katara returned from her trip, she saw that Sokka was still fretting around anxiously for Toph to return and Aang was sullenly playing with a marble.

"I'm going to get things ready for dinner. Will you help me, Aang?" Katara asked, smiling at Aang when he nodded immediately. She turned to Sokka, saying, "It won't be ready for an hour or so, but will you go find Toph?"

Sokka was on his feet immediately, and Katara grabbed his arm to stop him from starting off.

Quietly, she said, "Look, someone needs to talk to her. She's always on the defensive with me, and I don't think Aang would have any idea how to ask her about it. Plus, I really don't want to risk her actually burying him."

Sokka regarded her with a heavy look, his jaw tensing as he nodded slowly.

"I'm just saying, dinner won't be ready for awhile," Katara repeated. "And I don't think bottling everything up is going to help anyone."

"Yeah," Sokka agreed softly, nodding. "Yeah, okay," he repeated, and without another word, he set off in the direction where Toph had last been seen. 

As soon as he was out of sight, she turned to look at Aang, who was busying himself with the food supplies.

"Do you think we can make something other than soup tonight?" Aang asked her over his shoulder, digging through the basket that held the fresh vegetables. "I mean, I like it as much as the next monk, but we've had it so often lately, and Sokka always complains that he can't add meat."

"Sure," Katara agreed, unsure of how to broach the subject she wanted. She fretted over it for a little while, but in the end, she took a page from Toph's book and decided to be straightforward about it. 

"Aang," she said. "You need to stop feeling guilty."

If Katara had doubted the reason behind Aang's actions, she wouldn't have after seeing Aang's expression, like a gecko-deer caught in a sudden light.

Before he could deny it, she continued, "I'm serious, Aang. If you keep beating yourself up about what happened to Toph, it's just going to make you feel worse and worse. And that's only if Toph doesn't bury you under a ton of rocks for constantly hovering over her."

"I don't hover," Aang protested, though he noticed the look on her face and quietly added, "Not… constantly."

"Yeah, you do," Katara corrected. "Heck, you're annoying _me_ with it. Can you imagine how Toph— Toph, who barely tolerates being on a team in the first place— is dealing with it?"

Aang winced and made a sheepish sort of expression before wondering aloud, "She's actively plotting my death right now, isn't she?

"I'm sure she's going to enlist Sokka to draw up battle plans," Katara said, nodding. "And the thing is," she continued, drawing nearer to Aang and placing a gentle hand on his bare shoulder, "I think part of what's annoying her so much is the fact that she has no idea why you're always fretting over her."

"I'm worried about her!" Aang said. "She's been so quiet lately, and she was so sick and hurt, and it's all my fault—"

"No, Aang, it isn't!" Katara interrupted, getting in his face to make sure he was listening. "That's just my point. What happened to Toph is not your fault. It was an accident."

"It was my idea," Aang resolutely replied, his brow furrowing as he stared back at her. He sat down heavily on a nearby stone, slumping down dejectedly. "Going after the Wild Woman, that was my idea. And Toph's the one who got hurt."

"I was there with you the whole time," said Katara. "I could have argued with you at any time, but I didn't. Neither did Toph! The only person who thought it was a bad idea was Sokka, and even then, he agreed to go after her because you were _right_ , Aang. No matter what happened in the forest, going after the wraith was the right thing to do."

Aang's shoulders tensed, and Katara could practically feel him getting angry. "But other people aren't supposed to get hurt!" he replied, his voice just short of yelling. "I know it was the right idea, but," and here Aang paused, taking a breath as he collected his thoughts. When he began again, he seemed a bit calmer.

"I used the fact that I was the Avatar to argue my point," Aang said, and Katara could see the pain in his eyes. "The entire reason Toph is here is because I'm the Avatar, because she needs to train me, and I used it to convince everyone that we needed to fight some extra battle. And then Toph got really hurt, all because of what I said. All I can think is that she could have died, and then—"

He broke off, mouth twisting in a frown, but before Katara could say anything he continued, "It is my fault. It's my fault she's even here. She left her home and everything she had to help me train, and all I've done to pay her back is get mad at her and nearly get her killed. All because I'm the Avatar."

Katara let the words hang in the air for a moment, taking some time to come up with a good response. Aang was turned away from her, staring out at the forest with a pained expression. 

After a few moments, Katara said, "If Toph heard you say that, I think she wouldn't bother with plotting. She'd probably just pound you until you stopped talking."

Aang shot her a foul look, but Katara wasn't about to be put off by his hurt feelings.

"No, really," she said. "I get what you're saying, Aang, but the fact is, you didn't kidnap Toph and make her come with you. She chose to come. Heck, she was _happy_ to come— do you remember how depressing her home was? And yeah, maybe you used your Avatar status to convince everyone to fight the wraith, but Toph was right there beside you the whole time. If she really hadn't thought it was a good idea, do you think really she would have kept quiet about it? Toph isn't shy about making her opinion known."

Aang's expression had gone from angry to upset again, but at least he was listening to her. He interjected, "But she wouldn't have even been in that situation if—"

"If she hadn't _chosen_ to be?" Katara cut in, giving Aang a look. "Toph makes her own choices Aang, just like I do, just like Sokka does. We all knew that you were the Avatar when we joined up, and we knew that meant fighting. Yeah, the wraith was particularly bad, and this was definitely a close call that I don't ever want to repeat, but feeling guilty isn't going to make it any better. Especially because I don't think Toph has once thought of blaming someone other than the wraith for what happened."

Aang looked down at the ground, running a toe in the dirt with a pensive expression on his face. After a long moment, he said, "I just... I couldn't even protect her." He looked up at Katara, eyes wide, and said, "I put everyone in danger, all the time, and most of the time, it's okay, because I'm the one who everyone's trying to attack, and I can fight them off. You're all strong fighters, but it's still me who has to deal with the brunt of the attack, just because I'm the one they want.

"But this time," he continued, jaw clenching, "This time Toph was the one attacked, and I couldn't protect her. She's protected me. She fights to help me, and she trains me, and I wasn't able to help her."

"But you did help her!" Katara corrected, trying to keep the incredulity out of her voice and failing. "Aang, you may be the one who put everyone in that situation, but you're also the one who got us all out of it. Sokka and I couldn't have banished the wraith. And later, when Sokka and Toph were trapped in the boulder, you're the one who figured out how to open it. Using earthbending, I should add, which just shows that you're paying Toph back plenty by learning from her. I asked Toph, and she said that the kind of bending you did to free her and Sokka was actually really advanced."

"Really?" Aang asked, looking intrigued.

"Yeah, really," Katara affirmed. "She was really proud of you for using it."

At this, Aang smiled, but it was cut off in seconds as he gave Katara a suspicious stare. "There is no way Toph said something like that," he debated.

Katara glared at him, pursing her lips, but finally confirmed, "Okay, fine, she didn't specifically use the word ‘proud’, but she did say you were less of a moron that she thought you were, and for Toph that's practically glowing praise."

Aang looked mildly dejected at Toph's words, but managed a half-smile as he said, "That's true, I guess."

"See, Aang," Katara concluded softly. "The wraith was awful, and I know you're still worried about Toph. We all are. But I think it'll help a lot if you let your actions be motivated by your concern for her, not your guilt over what happened. I think it'll make it a lot easier to see when Toph actually wants your help and when she doesn't."

Aang took in her advice and seemed to think it over a bit as Katara took the time to start preparing dinner. After a couple of minutes, he offered, "I'm pretty sure the day Toph admits she wants my help will be when all the snow melts in the South Pole."

Katara grinned over at him. "I know. That's why you have to be sneaky about it."

For the first time since leaving the forest, Aang's returning smile didn't look forced.

 

 

\--

 

 

Toph had been alone for a whole, precious hour before someone tried to find her again. And she thought about hiding— and really, in a land with so many natural rock formations and caves, disguising herself was a cinch— but she knew it would only make everyone worry even more than they already did.

Besides, it was Sokka who found her. He might have been constantly hovering, but he was at least quiet about it.

"Hey," he greeted as he approached, hesitating a few paces away from her.

She grunted in response, not bothering to turn and face him. She was balancing rocks on top of each other, making them branch out into increasing lengths. It was a pretty simple earthbending exercise, but one that honed precision well. Unlike water and fire, earth didn't lend well to being made into a whip because it didn't tend to flow very well unless water was added. But Toph thought maybe she could create a little rock chain like Katara's water whip, if only she could get the precision of movements down. Right now, her little tower looked more like a tree than a ribbon, but it was kind of fun to play around with.

Not to mention, rocks didn't talk at her or nag her incessantly about her health. That was a definite plus.

"That's pretty neat," Sokka said, stepping forward a couple feet when Toph didn't immediately snap at him.

Toph shrugged. Silence loomed between them, which Toph clung to even though she could feel Sokka shifting his feet awkwardly.

Finally, Sokka seemed to find his courage, and he walked up beside her and sat down on the ground nearby. He said, "I think we should talk."

Toph tensed without thinking, hating the serious tone to his voice. She imagined it was like what a normal father would sound like if he needed to discuss something with a daughter. Her father had never sounded like that, of course; his voice has always been laced with patronizing tones, like he was speaking to a girl half her age. And her mother had never even bothered to scold her; Toph vaguely recalled overhearing that such a thing wasn't "ladylike" when she was younger.

Toph wasn't sure if this was how friends spoke to each other. She'd never had any, discounting the badgermoles, and they didn't talk.

"Is Twinkletoes crying because I hurt his feelings?" she ventured, hoping that Sokka was simply talking about her being rude. It would piss her off if he was going to blame her entirely for the atmosphere of the group, but such a conversation would still be preferable to talking about what happened before.

"Could be," Sokka replied easily. "I'm not worried about it. Aang bounces back pretty easily, unless Katara's the one being mean."

"Sweetness?" Toph asked. "I didn't know she was physically capable of being mean to Aang."

Sokka snorted, and shifted his position so that he was resting his arms on his bent knees. He said, "Yeah, well, you weren't there when she was pouting about him picking up bending techniques faster than her."

Toph considered this. "He does handle new ideas pretty quickly."

"And Katara's always been a painfully thorough person," Sokka explained, "So when it comes to bending, she's not as quick." He shrugged, adding with a less amused voice, "It was actually kind of annoying. I hate it when Katara pouts. She always gets really self-righteous about it."

Toph shrugged. She could say plenty of things about what she thought of Katara's attitude, sure, but Sokka had about fourteen years experience on her when it came to how Katara acted, so she imagined that anything she had to add would seem kind of petty in comparison.

"So," she began, because she could still feel the threatened conversation looming. "What did you want to talk about?"

She heard him suck in a breath. Then, sounding apprehensive, he said something that she wasn't expecting.

"Who are the bad men in the forest?"

Toph froze in shock, her eyes widening and her hands stilling their movement on the rocks. Before she could brace herself, the memory of the Wild Woman's death came back to her, and she felt her stomach curl in a mix of fear and disgust. She could practically feel the false memory of those mans' hands on her person, bruising and hurting, and though she managed to keep from flinching, she felt herself shudder. She could sense them, like they were leering over her, grabbing her, shoving her down, and-

She barely moved, but apparently her tension was enough evidence for Sokka.

"Toph?" he asked again. "Look, I know you don't want to talk about it, but it might help—"

"No," she said sharply. "It won't."

Sokka hesitated, and for a moment Toph thought he would try and barrage her into talking like Katara would have. But instead he asked, "Why not?"

Toph didn't say anything for a long while, trying to keep the fake memories from infesting her thoughts. It was so stupid, and she knew it. Really, she should have been more scared by the memory of the wraith than by the waking dream, but the thing was, the wraith was dead. Aang had killed her; Toph had heard her die. And yeah, she had been scary, but Toph had gotten through it, and she was alive now.

But the thought of the men who raped and killed the Wild Woman, even though Toph knew it was a fake memory and she herself hadn't actually been touched— it was too much. Not just because of the men themselves— they had to be dead by now, even if they had gotten away with it— but because there was nothing inherently wrong with them. They weren't evil spirits twisted by magic. Those men had been nothing other than regular people, and they had done unspeakable things to a young girl who had the sole misfortune of being a daughter of a cheating man.

And okay, maybe the Wild Woman's story struck home a little. Toph didn't think her father earned dirty money, but neither had the Wild Woman. In the end, the Wild Woman had just been a spoiled rich girl who wasn't allowed an identity outside of her father and fiancé, and was punished horribly for their crimes. Toph wasn't even sure if she could hate the Wild Woman. She despised the wraith and what she had done, but if she thought about it, all Toph knew was that if she had been put in the same situation, she probably would have turned out the same way. 

And what struck home was that if she hadn't run away, Toph knew that she could have been that girl. Daughter of the Beifong family, fiance of some other rich boy, existing as a part but not as a whole for the rest of her life.

"Well?" Sokka prompted after a bit, somehow managing to sound encouraging without being impatient.

Toph realized that he wasn't going to leave unless she gave him an answer. And while she could lie with the best of them, Toph wasn't sure if she could even manage a satisfactory answer that wasn't the truth.

So finally she asked him, "Do you know how the Wild Woman died?"

"She was murdered," Sokka replied slowly, "by those men who hated her father, right?"

"Yeah," Toph confirmed, asking again, "But do you know how she died?"

Sokka didn't reply, but Toph could tell from the way he shifted position - one hand leaning on the ground, weight all to one side - that he was giving her a puzzled look. Or a sad one, she couldn't be entirely sure. But she imagined from his hesitation that he was confused.

"I know," Toph said, gripping her knees with her hands and keeping her head bent down. She was sitting formally, her legs tucked under her and back straight, and resisted the urge to curl into a more comforting position. She continued, "The Wild Woman showed me, through a— a dream or something. She showed me how she died."

"You... saw it?" Sokka asked, clearly not believing the words even as they came out of his mouth.

"I felt it," Toph explained. "It was like... Like it was happening to me."

Toph wasn't sure if she could really say the whole thing, not in front of Sokka, who she really kind of liked, actually, and who she had only known for a month or so. She didn't know if she could say to anyone, really. Maybe Katara, but that would only make the girl go all motherly, Toph was sure. She could tell her later, but right now, only days after the attack? She couldn't. She only barely understood what had happened to the Wild Woman, to be honest, even if she could tell without knowledge of how wrong it had been. Her parents had never been forward about any sexual matters, and even Toph's brief experience among the tournament fighters at the Earth Rumble hadn't really exposed her to too much vulgarity. Even rough fighters found control over their mouths in front of a little girl, no matter how badly she could beat them at earthbending.

So Toph continued, before Sokka could say anything, by babbling, "I could feel them hurting me, and— and hitting me and stuff, and then it was like I was freezing on the ground, and I couldn't move, and—"

She cut off, taking a breath and spreading her hands out in an exasperated, helpless gesture. The stones she had been spinning fell to the ground, motionless. She continued, "And I know it didn't actually happen, but it felt like it did, and those men were just— they were just men! They weren't spirits or ghosts or whatever; they were just plain old people, and they really, _really_ hurt her."

Sokka was quiet as he listened, and when she finally finished, he keyed into the last word. "Hurt... the Wild Woman?"

"Yeah," Toph confirmed. "Or. The girl she was. It was really bad. And I hate the wraith and what she did, because—" She swallowed, hating that she had to talk about this in front of the one member of the group who hadn't pissed her off yet, but she went on, "Because she really scared me, and I almost died, but that doesn't change the fact that I completely understand why she became a wraith. I get why she was that angry, and why she kept insisting that she was saving me and other maidens or whatever, and I just can't forget the way she died." She scrubbed at her arms, adding bitterly, "It feels like someone's constantly touching me or something."

"That's awful," Sokka said, and quickly clarified, "All of it, I mean. Including what happened to her. I hadn't really thought about the Wild Woman's past, being too busy, y'know, hating her and being really ticked off at her for taking you, but..." He paused, and then simply ended with, "That sucks. A lot."

"Yeah," replied Toph. "It kind of does. And, well, that's why I've been kind of on edge."

"A little," Sokka said with a soft laugh, "But really? I'm impressed."

Toph blinked in confusion. "You are?"

"Yes," he said firmly. "If I had been the one attacked by the wraith, I'm pretty sure I'd still be huddled in a little ball shaking. I mean, I just saw the wraith a couple of times— she didn't even attack me directly— and I've still had a couple of nightmares." He stopped for a moment, considering, and then amended, "Though, to be fair, at least half of those nightmares involved Azula burning me alive, so it's kind of a mix."

Toph managed a grin at that. "I don't even remember that fight, really. Just a bunch of fuzzy thoughts about dragons and fire."

"Oh, man, you were hilarious," Sokka told her, leaning back and laughing. "I mean, mostly in retrospect, 'cause at the time I was freaking out majorly, but now?" His body vibrated the ground as he shook his head from left to right. "Now I just think it's funny. I was trying to reassure you and everything, and you just kept talking about fairy tales."

"Whatever," Toph said. "I still kicked ass."

"That you did," Sokka confirmed, ticking a finger at her and shifting as though he was giving her a solemn nod. "And I definitely was a fan of delirious you laying the smack down, not in the least because it meant I didn't die. I liked that part a lot."

Toph almost giggled at him, but managed to change it to a more respectable snort. The Blind Bandit did not giggle at boys acting ridiculous.

"Anyway," Sokka said, leaning forward again. "I know you don't want to talk about it much— and I totally get that, trust me— but I hope maybe telling me a little part of it helped. And you know if you ever need to go over it again, I'm always free. I mean, I'm the only one in the group who isn't trying to be Super Bender, so I might as well be the team therapist, you know?"

Toph raised a skeptical eyebrow. "A therapist?" she asked, just barely swallowing an amused snort. "No offense, but my family has totally made me go to therapists before, and you're nothing like that."

"Oh yeah?" Sokka challenged. "What are therapists like, then?"

"Well," began Toph, struggling to her feet and shaking out the numb feeling from her knees. "They're all pompous and old— that's a must— and they stare at you and ask really annoying questions like," and at this, Toph lowered her voice before continuing, with over-exaggerated vowels, "But how does that make you _feel_ , little Miss Beifong?"

Sokka jumped to his feet and posed like Toph was, hunched over and probably stroking his hairless chin. " _Do_ tell me, have you ever felt that way befooooore?" he offered, mimicking her drawn out tone with a greater effect than Toph, as he could make his voice dip much lower.

"No, it needs to be more pompous, like you can hardly deign yourself to talk to me."

Sokka shifted a bit, and then said in an even snootier tone, "Could you tell me _exactly_ how you felt when your feeling first overtook your feelings?"

Toph snickered at the improved tone and content. "Yep, that's it exactly!"

They stayed up on the mountain for the rest of the hour, making ridiculous impressions until it was time to go down to dinner. And even if Toph hadn't told Sokka the whole truth of what had happened, she felt like weight had been lifted from her shoulders. 

She could tell him, if she wanted. He had listened to her fears and hadn't dismissed them or patronized her, and that was something that Toph hadn't ever really experienced.

Maybe this was what friendship was about. Sokka, Katara and Aang got on her nerves a lot, yeah, but they had come for her. They had stopped the wraith, saved her life, and listened to her fears, and none of them made her feel weak or foolish for any of it. They had been there for her.

And maybe there would come a time when Toph didn't want to keep the secret anymore. Maybe later she would feel strong enough to tell someone the whole truth of why the wraith had scared her so much. For now, however, it was enough to know that she had someone that she could tell, even if she wasn't ready.

And that was enough for her.

 

 

\--

 

 

The fire was growing slowly smaller as Aang sat, picking at his rice and staring into the golden heat pensively. Katara's words were swimming around in his mind, warring with the gnawing pit in his stomach. He hated feeling responsible for another's pain, but even though he had Katara's logic to back him up, Aang couldn't help the worry that sounded through his mind every time he saw Toph.

He knew it was dumb. Toph and Sokka had come back from the forest laughing, and she looked better than she had in days. Aang could feel the group settling back into their earlier routine even as the worry tore at him. Katara was bugging Sokka and Toph to help clean up, while Sokka kept trying to figure out the best route to get to Ba Sing Se from their current location. Toph grudgingly grabbed a pot and started scrubbing half-heartedly, not due to exhaustion but simply disinterest.

And then there was Aang, sitting alone by the fire, lost in thought.

Even as he sat, Aang couldn't help but hear Katara's advice repeating itself, urging him on to join the group. And from somewhere in the back of his mind, he could practically hear Toph's voice saying, _"You call that facing it head on, Twinkletoes?"_ The warring options in his mind were enough to drive him mad.

Finally, Aang couldn't take the constant cycle of guilt and absolution.

"Hey, Toph," he called out, almost without thinking. He stood up and brought his plate over to Katara as he said, "Any chance we could get some training in tonight?" He wiggled his fingers over the ground with no effect, saying, "I don't think I remember how to earthbend anymore."

Toph tilted her head at him, clearly waiting for the worried query about her health that Aang refused to say. When it didn't come, she gave him an imperious look. "You forgot earthbending? Haven't you been doing your exercises?"

"Well, we've been flying for like, five days strai-"

"No excuses!" she snapped at him, but her words were belied by the grin on her face. "Now come on, I feel some rocks with your name on it."

"Aye-aye, Sifu Toph," Aang said, smiling, and followed her back into the forest, where he knew there was plenty of good-sized rocks to practice with. On their way out, he could hear Sokka and Katara deliberating about the path of Ba Sing Se, and he knew that, despite how horrible the wraith had been, they were going to get through this.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this story! Please let me know what you liked and didn't like in comments. I'm on tumblr as "panaili" if you'd like to hang out over there as well.


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